AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at Scotiabank

Scotiabank upgraded shares of AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) to a strong-buy rating in a research report released on Wednesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Daiwa America upgraded AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $240.00 to $235.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, October 25th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on AbbVie from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 12th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald set a $250.00 price objective on AbbVie and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AbbVie currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $238.55.

AbbVie Price Performance

ABBV traded up $0.14 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $232.43. 5,433,897 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,398,759. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $224.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $203.63. The company has a market cap of $410.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 110.68, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.14, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.61. AbbVie has a twelve month low of $163.81 and a twelve month high of $244.81.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 31st. The company reported $1.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.09. AbbVie had a net margin of 6.45% and a return on equity of 699.66%. The company had revenue of $15.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.58 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.00 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. AbbVie has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 3.320-3.360 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that AbbVie will post 12.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.73 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 16th. This represents a $6.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. This is a boost from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.64. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 524.24%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AbbVie

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 177,747,261 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,155,601,000 after purchasing an additional 448,554 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in AbbVie by 2.4% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 39,178,351 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,240,169,000 after purchasing an additional 924,761 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in AbbVie by 6.0% in the second quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 26,783,329 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,970,848,000 after purchasing an additional 1,517,222 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in AbbVie in the second quarter worth $4,288,200,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in AbbVie by 0.9% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 22,013,920 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,612,357,000 after buying an additional 189,294 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

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.