AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Stock Price Down 0.6% – What’s Next?

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) dropped 0.6% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $199.46 and last traded at $199.91. Approximately 627,343 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 88% from the average daily volume of 5,306,925 shares. The stock had previously closed at $201.20.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ABBV has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $218.00 to $231.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. William Blair upgraded shares of AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $202.72.

AbbVie Price Performance

The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $194.58 and its 200 day moving average price is $180.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $352.67 billion, a PE ratio of 69.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 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.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 226.99%. The business had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.95 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.96 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The company 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 an increase from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.29%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is 227.78%.

Institutional Trading of AbbVie

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 6.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 170,376,746 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,025,605,000 after purchasing an additional 9,978,415 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 6.9% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 48,098,784 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,758,789,000 after purchasing an additional 3,110,601 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 3.3% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 31,295,150 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,698,847,000 after purchasing an additional 992,496 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 0.9% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 15,277,480 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,620,382,000 after purchasing an additional 134,239 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 12.8% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 10,898,246 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,984,490,000 after purchasing an additional 1,240,434 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.