Short Interest in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Rises By 8.9%

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 16,180,000 shares, an increase of 8.9% from the September 30th total of 14,860,000 shares. Approximately 0.9% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 4,770,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.4 days.

Insider Activity at AbbVie

In related news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 66,500 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $83,299,645.48. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AbbVie

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ABBV. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of AbbVie by 6.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 170,376,746 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,025,605,000 after acquiring an additional 9,978,415 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of AbbVie by 1,745.0% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,728,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $933,698,000 after acquiring an additional 4,471,806 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its position in shares of AbbVie by 249.1% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 4,373,184 shares of the company’s stock worth $796,357,000 after acquiring an additional 3,120,310 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its stake in AbbVie by 6.9% during the first 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 in the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc raised its stake in AbbVie by 156.0% during the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 3,474,020 shares of the company’s stock valued at $632,619,000 after purchasing an additional 2,116,997 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Stock Performance

ABBV opened at $203.87 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $360.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 70.79, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.63. AbbVie has a 1-year low of $135.85 and a 1-year high of $207.32. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $194.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $179.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.71.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.92 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.28 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.71% and a return on equity of 203.66%. The company’s revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.95 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that AbbVie will post 10.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be given a $1.64 dividend. This is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.22%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is presently 227.78%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. William Blair raised shares of AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 30th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $214.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $201.00.

About AbbVie

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.