AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Stock Price Down 0.6% – Should You Sell?

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) shares dropped 0.6% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $199.46 and last traded at $199.91. Approximately 627,343 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 88% from the average daily volume of 5,306,925 shares. The stock had previously closed at $201.20.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on ABBV. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $196.00 to $209.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of AbbVie from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on AbbVie in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $203.00 price target for the company. Guggenheim upped their target price on shares of AbbVie from $212.00 to $221.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on shares of AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $202.72.

AbbVie Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.71. The firm has a market cap of $353.89 billion, a PE ratio of 69.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.63. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $194.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $180.25.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a return on equity of 226.99% and a net margin of 9.22%. The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.95 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be given a dividend of $1.64 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.27%. This is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 215.28%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AbbVie

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Fairway Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in AbbVie in the second quarter worth about $26,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of AbbVie in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC bought a new position in AbbVie in the 3rd quarter worth $39,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 100.0% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Quest Partners LLC boosted its stake in AbbVie by 4,140.0% during the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 212 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 207 shares in 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.