AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Shares Up 0.5% After Analyst Upgrade

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) was up 0.5% during mid-day trading on Thursday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $191.00 to $196.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. AbbVie traded as high as $169.99 and last traded at $169.04. Approximately 509,380 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 91% from the average daily volume of 5,580,596 shares. The stock had previously closed at $168.14.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on ABBV. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on AbbVie from $195.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 29th. Barclays lowered their price objective on AbbVie from $195.00 to $187.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Guggenheim upped their price target on shares of AbbVie from $188.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $190.00 price objective on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Wednesday, July 3rd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of AbbVie in a report on Tuesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $182.69.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AbbVie

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in AbbVie by 26.8% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 417,644 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,254,000 after buying an additional 88,172 shares during the last quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of AbbVie by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 37,159 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,759,000 after buying an additional 3,808 shares in the last quarter. StrongBox Wealth LLC increased its holdings in AbbVie by 24.2% in the 4th quarter. StrongBox Wealth LLC now owns 2,030 shares of the company’s stock worth $315,000 after acquiring an additional 396 shares in the last quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in AbbVie by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC now owns 18,368 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,847,000 after acquiring an additional 233 shares during the period. Finally, Channel Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 13.5% during the fourth quarter. Channel Wealth LLC now owns 18,314 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,838,000 after purchasing an additional 2,176 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

AbbVie Trading Up 0.2 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $300.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.64. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $165.23 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $168.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.93, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.83.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 3rd. The company reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.26 by $0.05. AbbVie had a return on equity of 179.47% and a net margin of 11.02%. The business had revenue of $12.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.93 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.46 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.73 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Monday, July 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 3.64%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 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.