AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Trading Up 1.4% – Time to Buy?

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)’s stock price traded up 1.4% on Monday . The company traded as high as $180.19 and last traded at $179.43. 2,068,007 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 62% from the average session volume of 5,505,530 shares. The stock had previously closed at $176.95.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley lowered 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. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on shares of AbbVie in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $203.00 target price on the stock. Argus upgraded shares of AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, William Blair raised shares of AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AbbVie presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $203.50.

AbbVie Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.65. The company has a market capitalization of $312.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $189.47 and a 200-day moving average price of $181.32.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.92 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.28 billion. AbbVie had a return on equity of 244.01% and a net margin of 9.22%. AbbVie’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.95 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be issued a $1.64 dividend. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.70%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. This is an increase from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is presently 215.28%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AbbVie

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 1,745.0% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,728,063 shares of the company’s stock valued at $933,698,000 after buying an additional 4,471,806 shares during the period. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in AbbVie in the 1st quarter valued at $367,372,000. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of AbbVie by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 79,067,935 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,614,329,000 after acquiring an additional 1,267,685 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 314.1% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,315,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $225,549,000 after purchasing an additional 997,441 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in AbbVie by 7.6% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,841,189 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,516,358,000 after purchasing an additional 623,569 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by 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.