AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Stock Price Up 0.5% After Analyst Upgrade

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) shares shot up 0.5% on Thursday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $191.00 to $196.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. AbbVie traded as high as $169.99 and last traded at $169.04. 509,380 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 91% from the average session volume of 5,580,596 shares. The stock had previously closed at $168.14.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on ABBV. Piper Sandler Companies reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $190.00 target price on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays decreased their target price on AbbVie from $195.00 to $187.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 29th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Guggenheim raised their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $188.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AbbVie presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $181.07.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Lokken Investment Group LLC boosted its stake in AbbVie by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Lokken Investment Group LLC now owns 1,666 shares of the company’s stock valued at $258,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI boosted its position in shares of AbbVie by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI now owns 9,371 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,706,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Aspen Wealth Strategies LLC grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Aspen Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 11,463 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,776,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc now owns 2,254 shares of the company’s stock worth $349,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Spinnaker Investment Group LLC increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 1.6% in the first quarter. Spinnaker Investment Group LLC now owns 4,068 shares of the company’s stock worth $741,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.93, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.94. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $164.92 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $168.27. The stock has a market cap of $300.04 billion, a PE ratio of 50.31, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.64.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its earnings results on Friday, May 3rd. The company reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.26 by $0.05. AbbVie had a return on equity of 179.47% and a net margin of 11.02%. The company had revenue of $12.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.46 EPS. AbbVie’s quarterly revenue was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.61 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Monday, July 15th will be issued a dividend of $1.55 per share. This represents a $6.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.65%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 15th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is currently 183.98%.

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.