AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Trading Up 1.1% Following Analyst Upgrade

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)’s share price rose 1.1% on Monday after Citigroup raised their price target on the stock from $170.00 to $215.00. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock. AbbVie traded as high as $189.92 and last traded at $189.90. Approximately 575,300 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 89% from the average daily volume of 5,265,257 shares. The stock had previously closed at $187.85.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Barclays increased their price objective on AbbVie from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $214.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. William Blair upgraded shares of AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on AbbVie from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on AbbVie from $211.00 to $218.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.39.

Insider Activity at AbbVie

In related news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 66,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.52, for a total value of $12,403,580.00. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 446,599 shares in the company, valued at $83,299,645.48. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of AbbVie

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ABBV. Nikulski Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 0.7% in the third quarter. Nikulski Financial Inc. now owns 37,806 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,466,000 after acquiring an additional 264 shares during the last quarter. HM Payson & Co. lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. HM Payson & Co. now owns 578,416 shares of the company’s stock valued at $114,226,000 after purchasing an additional 8,585 shares in the last quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC raised its position in AbbVie by 1.4% in the third quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC now owns 12,469 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,462,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the period. Goldstone Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AbbVie in the third quarter worth about $1,728,000. Finally, Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. lifted its position in AbbVie by 13.6% during the 3rd quarter. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. now owns 536 shares of the company’s stock worth $106,000 after acquiring an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AbbVie Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $335.25 billion, a PE ratio of 56.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.63. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $194.02 and its 200-day moving average price is $178.40. 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 released its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $2.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.08. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.71% and a return on equity of 203.66%. The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.02 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.91 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.85 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be given a dividend of $1.55 per share. This represents a $6.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 15th. AbbVie’s dividend 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.