AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Issues Q1 Earnings Guidance

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) issued an update on its first quarter earnings guidance on Thursday morning. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $2.34-2.38 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $2.51. AbbVie also updated its FY25 guidance to $11.99-12.19 EPS.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on ABBV shares. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of AbbVie from $211.00 to $217.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on AbbVie from $224.00 to $239.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. UBS Group boosted their price target on AbbVie from $181.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Citigroup increased their price objective on AbbVie from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Daiwa America lowered AbbVie from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AbbVie has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $211.45.

AbbVie Price Performance

Shares of ABBV traded down $3.88 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $201.31. 7,582,383 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,769,384. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $199.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $189.22. AbbVie has a fifty-two week low of $153.58 and a fifty-two week high of $218.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $356.11 billion, a PE ratio of 83.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a quick ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 17.94.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The company reported $2.16 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by ($0.82). AbbVie had a return on equity of 296.28% and a net margin of 7.59%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.79 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that AbbVie will post 12.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be paid a $1.64 dividend. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.26%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 15th. AbbVie’s payout ratio is 273.33%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 18,944 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.41, for a total transaction of $3,853,399.04. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 11,496 shares in the company, valued at $2,338,401.36. This represents a 62.23 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Jeffrey Ryan Stewart sold 58,832 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction on Monday, March 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.08, for a total value of $12,359,426.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 53,234 shares in the company, valued at $11,183,398.72. The trade was a 52.50 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 113,471 shares of company stock valued at $23,426,451 in the last 90 days. 0.08% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in AbbVie stock. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) by 17.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,912 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,401 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in AbbVie were worth $4,072,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. 70.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.