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

Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) rose 0.6% during mid-day trading 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 analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of AbbVie from $215.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. UBS Group lifted their target price on AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on AbbVie in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $203.00 price target on the stock. Truist Financial lifted 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, William Blair upgraded shares of AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AbbVie has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $202.72.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fairway Wealth LLC bought a new position in AbbVie during the second quarter worth about $26,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of AbbVie during the second quarter worth approximately $27,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AbbVie in the third quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Quest Partners LLC grew its position in AbbVie by 4,140.0% during the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 212 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 207 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AbbVie Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $355.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 69.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $194.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $180.25.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a return on equity of 226.99% and a net margin of 9.22%. The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.28 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.95 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.97 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be issued a dividend of $1.64 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.26%. AbbVie’s payout ratio 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.