AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Trading Down 0.5% on Analyst Downgrade

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) shares traded down 0.5% on Thursday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on the stock from $210.00 to $200.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the stock. AbbVie traded as low as $168.66 and last traded at $169.55. 1,429,943 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 74% from the average session volume of 5,411,837 shares. The stock had previously closed at $170.35.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of AbbVie in a report on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of AbbVie from $231.00 to $224.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $203.83.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Saturna Capital Corp raised its stake in shares of AbbVie by 486.1% during the 3rd quarter. Saturna Capital Corp now owns 676,176 shares of the company’s stock worth $133,531,000 after acquiring an additional 560,808 shares in the last quarter. First Hawaiian Bank raised its stake in shares of AbbVie by 9.0% during the 2nd quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 32,099 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,506,000 after acquiring an additional 2,657 shares in the last quarter. PGGM Investments raised its stake in shares of AbbVie by 308.1% during the 2nd quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 32,790 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,624,000 after acquiring an additional 24,756 shares in the last quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of AbbVie by 57.5% during the 3rd quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 16,620 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,282,000 after acquiring an additional 6,065 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in AbbVie by 8.3% during the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 77,864 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,377,000 after purchasing an additional 5,993 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

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 firm has a market cap of $299.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.63. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $193.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $180.84.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.92 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.28 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 244.01%. AbbVie’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.95 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 EPS for the current fiscal 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 3.87%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is 215.28%.

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.