AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Shares Up 2.9% – Time to Buy?

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)’s share price traded up 2.9% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $238.01 and last traded at $236.12. 7,984,502 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 25% from the average session volume of 6,394,814 shares. The stock had previously closed at $229.45.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ABBV has been the topic of several recent research reports. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $220.00 to $251.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of AbbVie from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 12th. Daiwa Capital Markets raised AbbVie from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $214.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on AbbVie from $207.00 to $222.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Finally, Berenberg Bank upgraded AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $170.00 to $270.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $240.14.

AbbVie Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $417.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 112.44, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a fifty day moving average of $226.46 and a 200 day moving average of $204.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.14, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.61.

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

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.73 per share. This is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.64. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 16th. This represents a $6.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. AbbVie’s payout ratio is 524.24%.

Institutional Trading of AbbVie

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 177,747,261 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,155,601,000 after acquiring an additional 448,554 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 2.4% during 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 last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of AbbVie by 6.0% in 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 purchasing an additional 1,517,222 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in AbbVie in the 2nd quarter worth about $4,288,200,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake 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 purchasing an additional 189,294 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.