AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Shares Up 0.3%

Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) rose 0.3% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $179.77 and last traded at $179.15. Approximately 720,926 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 87% from the average daily volume of 5,648,388 shares. The stock had previously closed at $178.53.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on ABBV. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of AbbVie from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $173.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 11th. Raymond James raised their price objective on AbbVie from $181.00 to $189.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of AbbVie from $187.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 5th. HSBC cut shares of AbbVie from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $167.00 to $156.00 in a research report on Monday, December 18th. Finally, William Blair raised AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $177.43.

AbbVie Trading Up 0.6 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $319.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 66.06, a P/E/G 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 business has a 50-day moving average price of $174.15 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $157.81.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its quarterly 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. AbbVie had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 162.28%. The company had revenue of $14.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.02 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.60 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 11.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.55 per share. This represents a $6.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. AbbVie’s payout ratio is 227.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling at AbbVie

In related news, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 52,870 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.71, for a total transaction of $9,184,047.70. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 243,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,375,512.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other AbbVie news, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 52,870 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.71, for a total transaction of $9,184,047.70. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 243,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,375,512.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 5,144 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.65, for a total value of $908,687.60. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 6,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,233,546.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 383,324 shares of company stock worth $67,780,003 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of AbbVie

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in AbbVie by 89,097.0% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 29,203,106 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,719,514,000 after purchasing an additional 29,170,366 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in AbbVie during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,229,888,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 29,922.3% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,032,374 shares of the company’s stock worth $899,186,000 after acquiring an additional 6,012,281 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in AbbVie by 17.9% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 31,571,750 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,102,311,000 after acquiring an additional 4,785,277 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 426.5% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,652,122 shares of the company’s stock valued at $754,155,000 after acquiring an additional 3,768,579 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

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.