AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Trading 0.1% Higher Following Analyst Upgrade

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)’s share price shot up 0.1% during trading on Friday after BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on the stock from $214.00 to $220.00. BMO Capital Markets currently has an outperform rating on the stock. AbbVie traded as high as $189.56 and last traded at $188.82. 1,031,957 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 80% from the average session volume of 5,278,659 shares. The stock had previously closed at $188.57.

ABBV has been the subject of several other reports. William Blair upgraded AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $211.00 to $218.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of AbbVie from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on AbbVie in a research note on Thursday. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $203.00 price target on the stock. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, AbbVie currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $198.69.

Insider Transactions at AbbVie

In related news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 66,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.52, for a total transaction of $12,403,580.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 446,599 shares in the company, valued at approximately $83,299,645.48. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in AbbVie by 6.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 170,376,746 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,025,605,000 after acquiring an additional 9,978,415 shares during the period. Capital International Investors raised its stake in AbbVie by 6.9% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 48,098,784 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,758,789,000 after purchasing an additional 3,110,601 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 31,295,150 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,698,847,000 after purchasing an additional 992,496 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in AbbVie by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 15,277,480 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,620,382,000 after purchasing an additional 134,239 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in AbbVie by 12.8% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 10,898,246 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,984,490,000 after buying an additional 1,240,434 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Stock Performance

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $194.46 and its 200-day moving average price is $177.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.71. The stock has a market cap of $333.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.03, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.63.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $2.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.08. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.71% and a return on equity of 203.66%. The company had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.91 EPS. AbbVie’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.55 per share. This represents a $6.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 15th. AbbVie’s payout ratio is presently 183.98%.

AbbVie Company Profile

AbbVie Inc discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells pharmaceuticals worldwide. The company offers Humira, an injection for autoimmune and intestinal Behçet's diseases, and pyoderma gangrenosum; Skyrizi to treat moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, psoriatic disease, and Crohn's disease; Rinvoq to treat rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, atopic dermatitis, axial spondyloarthropathy, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn's disease; Imbruvica for the treatment of adult patients with blood cancers; Epkinly to treat lymphoma; Elahere to treat cancer; and Venclexta/Venclyxto to treat blood cancers.