AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Shares Up 3.7% – Still a Buy?

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) shares rose 3.7% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $234.00 and last traded at $233.4170. Approximately 8,336,694 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 31% from the average daily volume of 6,386,281 shares. The stock had previously closed at $225.17.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ABBV has been the subject of several research reports. Daiwa America raised AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of AbbVie from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $214.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Berenberg Bank upgraded shares of AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $170.00 to $270.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. UBS Group lifted their price target on AbbVie from $195.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $236.57.

AbbVie Trading Up 3.7%

The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.14. The company has a market cap of $412.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 111.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.50. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $224.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $203.43.

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

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.64. This represents a $6.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is currently 524.24%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 0.3% during the third 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 during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of 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 period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 6.0% during the 2nd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 26,783,329 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,970,848,000 after buying an additional 1,517,222 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in AbbVie in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $4,288,200,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in AbbVie by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 22,013,920 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,612,357,000 after buying an additional 189,294 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.