AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Plans Dividend Increase – $1.64 Per Share

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 30th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be given a dividend of 1.64 per share on Friday, February 14th. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.39%. This is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55.

AbbVie has raised its dividend by an average of 7.8% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 52 years. AbbVie has a payout ratio of 51.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect AbbVie to earn $12.11 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 51.2%.

AbbVie Price Performance

Shares of ABBV stock traded up $4.03 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $193.48. 1,300,332 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,271,889. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $193.75 and a 200 day moving average of $178.75. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51. AbbVie has a 52-week low of $135.85 and a 52-week high of $199.95. The company has a market cap of $341.66 billion, a PE ratio of 56.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.63.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 66,500 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.52, for a total transaction of $12,403,580.00. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 446,599 shares in the company, valued at $83,299,645.48. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.25% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on ABBV. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $196.00 to $209.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $214.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. TD Cowen increased 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. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of AbbVie from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $199.39.

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.