AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Trading Up 0.1% – Still a Buy?

Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) rose 0.1% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $176.01 and last traded at $175.39. Approximately 1,241,937 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 78% from the average daily volume of 5,698,836 shares. The stock had previously closed at $175.26.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Daiwa Capital Markets cut shares of AbbVie from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $180.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Thursday, December 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on AbbVie from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. 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. Daiwa America lowered AbbVie from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Leerink Partners upgraded AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $206.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.00.

AbbVie Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $310.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 60.95, a PEG ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.58. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $176.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $184.90. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $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 forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at AbbVie

In other news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 1,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.24, for a total transaction of $310,032.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 6,983 shares in the company, valued at $1,202,751.92. The trade was a 20.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AbbVie

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Centerpoint Advisory Group purchased a new stake in shares of AbbVie in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,089,000. bLong Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of AbbVie in the fourth quarter worth approximately $792,000. Everhart Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in AbbVie by 33.1% in the fourth quarter. Everhart Financial Group Inc. now owns 17,280 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,071,000 after purchasing an additional 4,295 shares in the last quarter. TigerOak Management L.L.C. bought a new stake in AbbVie during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $703,000. Finally, Seascape Capital Management grew its stake in AbbVie by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Seascape Capital Management now owns 27,544 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,895,000 after buying an additional 433 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

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.