AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Stock Price Up 0.1% Following Analyst Upgrade

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)’s share price rose 0.1% on Wednesday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock to $195.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has a buy rating on the stock. AbbVie traded as high as $167.20 and last traded at $166.66. Approximately 758,224 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 86% from the average daily volume of 5,460,177 shares. The stock had previously closed at $166.57.

ABBV has been the subject of several other reports. Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on AbbVie in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $203.00 target price for the company. TD Cowen upped their target price on AbbVie from $195.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Barclays upped their target price on AbbVie from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of AbbVie in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on AbbVie from $196.00 to $209.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $203.37.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 1,745.0% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,728,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $933,698,000 after acquiring an additional 4,471,806 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 249.1% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 4,373,184 shares of the company’s stock valued at $796,357,000 after acquiring an additional 3,120,310 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 3,110,601 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in shares of AbbVie during the 1st quarter valued at about $367,372,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 13.7% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,744,190 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,956,518,000 after acquiring an additional 1,291,201 shares during the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AbbVie Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64. The firm has a market cap of $294.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.63. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $190.79 and a 200 day moving average price of $181.10.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a return on equity of 244.01% and a net margin of 9.22%. The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.95 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.64 per share. This is an increase from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.94%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is presently 215.28%.

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.