AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Shares Up 0.6% After Analyst Upgrade

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) rose 0.6% on Wednesday after Guggenheim raised their price target on the stock from $212.00 to $221.00. Guggenheim currently has a buy rating on the stock. AbbVie traded as high as $206.15 and last traded at $202.99. Approximately 1,437,279 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 73% from the average daily volume of 5,301,912 shares. The stock had previously closed at $201.68.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on ABBV. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on AbbVie from $218.00 to $231.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of AbbVie from $196.00 to $209.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on shares of AbbVie in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $203.00 target price on the stock. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their price objective on AbbVie from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $202.72.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Fairway Wealth LLC bought a new stake in AbbVie in the second quarter valued at about $26,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of AbbVie in the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. Quest Partners LLC raised its position in shares of AbbVie by 4,140.0% in the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 212 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 207 shares during the period. Marquette Asset Management LLC bought a new position in AbbVie during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. increased its stake in AbbVie by 100.0% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Trading Down 0.4 %

The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $194.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $180.25. The company has a market capitalization of $354.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 69.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.92 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.28 billion. AbbVie had a return on equity of 226.99% and a net margin of 9.22%. The company’s revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.95 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be issued a dividend of $1.64 per share. This is an increase from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.27%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 215.28%.

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.