AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Shares Up 0.6%

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) shares rose 0.6% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $198.75 and last traded at $197.55. Approximately 880,881 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 84% from the average daily volume of 5,389,851 shares. The stock had previously closed at $196.42.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ABBV has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price objective on AbbVie from $187.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $180.00 to $214.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. William Blair raised shares of AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of AbbVie from $196.00 to $209.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $190.00 price target on shares of AbbVie in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $191.64.

AbbVie Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $343.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.64. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $185.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $175.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.71.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $2.65 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.02 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.71% and a return on equity of 203.66%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.91 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.86 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.55 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $6.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.19%. AbbVie’s payout ratio is 183.98%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 66,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.52, for a total transaction of $12,403,580.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 446,599 shares in the company, valued at $83,299,645.48. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other AbbVie news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 282,845 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total transaction of $49,497,875.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 513,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $89,792,325. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 66,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.52, for a total value of $12,403,580.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now owns 446,599 shares in the company, valued at $83,299,645.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.25% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of AbbVie

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ABBV. Frisch Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in AbbVie by 0.8% during the second quarter. Frisch Financial Group Inc. now owns 6,920 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,187,000 after buying an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC boosted its position in shares of AbbVie by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 4,453 shares of the company’s stock valued at $764,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Hilltop Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 1.4% in the second quarter. Hilltop Partners LLC now owns 3,859 shares of the company’s stock valued at $662,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the period. Lokken Investment Group LLC increased its position in AbbVie by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Lokken Investment Group LLC now owns 1,666 shares of the company’s stock worth $258,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC raised its stake in AbbVie by 1.0% during the second quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 5,622 shares of the company’s stock worth $964,000 after purchasing an additional 58 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.