AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Trading 1.1% Higher – Still a Buy?

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) shares traded up 1.1% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $169.61 and last traded at $169.55. 1,068,856 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 80% from the average session volume of 5,468,993 shares. The stock had previously closed at $167.76.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on ABBV. Barclays increased their price objective on AbbVie from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of AbbVie from $228.00 to $208.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of AbbVie from $196.00 to $209.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Bank of America upped their price target on AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on AbbVie from $231.00 to $224.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $203.37.

AbbVie Price Performance

The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $190.25 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $181.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $303.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.87, a PEG ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.63.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its quarterly 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 244.01% and a net margin of 9.22%. The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.28 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.95 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a $1.64 dividend. This is a boost from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.81%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 215.28%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AbbVie

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 79,067,935 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,614,329,000 after buying an additional 1,267,685 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of AbbVie by 0.9% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 15,277,480 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,620,382,000 after purchasing an additional 134,239 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of AbbVie by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,630,404 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,691,732,000 after acquiring an additional 511,470 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in AbbVie by 12.8% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 10,898,246 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,984,490,000 after purchasing an additional 1,240,434 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in 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 worth $1,956,518,000 after buying an additional 1,291,201 shares during the period. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.