AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-four brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seventeen have given a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $205.70.

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on ABBV shares. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of AbbVie from $231.00 to $224.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. William Blair upgraded AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on AbbVie in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $203.00 target price for the company. Argus raised AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Barclays lifted 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.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AbbVie news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 1,800 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 6,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,202,751.92. The trade was a 20.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of AbbVie in the second quarter valued at about $26,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new stake in AbbVie during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Groupama Asset Managment raised its stake in AbbVie by 40.3% during the 3rd quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 135,749 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 38,974 shares during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in AbbVie in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC boosted its stake in AbbVie by 4,140.0% in the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 212 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE:ABBV opened at $180.00 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $182.21 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $183.69. AbbVie has a 12-month low of $153.58 and a 12-month high of $207.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $318.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.50, a PEG ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.58.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $14.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.95 EPS. AbbVie’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that AbbVie will post 10.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be given 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.64%. AbbVie’s payout ratio is 227.78%.

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.