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

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) shot up 0.1% on Wednesday after Barclays raised their price target on the stock from $185.00 to $195.00. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the stock. AbbVie traded as high as $180.24 and last traded at $179.37. 670,251 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 88% from the average session volume of 5,626,259 shares. The stock had previously closed at $179.19.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on ABBV. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on AbbVie from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised AbbVie from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $173.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, December 11th. William Blair raised AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Guggenheim boosted their target price on AbbVie from $188.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Raymond James boosted their target price on AbbVie from $181.00 to $189.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 5th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $177.43.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other AbbVie news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 5,144 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.65, for a total transaction of $908,687.60. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 6,983 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,233,546.95. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other AbbVie news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 5,144 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.65, for a total transaction of $908,687.60. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 6,983 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,233,546.95. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Richard A. Gonzalez sold 138,616 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.27, for a total transaction of $24,572,458.32. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 519,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $92,020,679.73. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 383,324 shares of company stock worth $67,780,003 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AbbVie

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of AbbVie in the 4th quarter valued at $27,290,000. Fairman Group LLC acquired a new position in AbbVie in the 4th quarter worth $77,000. Livelsberger Financial Advisory acquired a new position in AbbVie in the 4th quarter worth $626,000. Warren Street Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in AbbVie in the 4th quarter worth $238,000. Finally, Accent Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in AbbVie in the 4th quarter worth $542,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $322.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 66.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $174.51 and its two-hundred day moving average is $157.96.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The company reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $14.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.02 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 162.28%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.60 EPS. Analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 11.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.55 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $6.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.41%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is 227.11%.

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.