AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Shares Up 0.4% – Time to Buy?

Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) shot up 0.4% on Friday . The company traded as high as $212.42 and last traded at $212.39. 784,049 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 87% from the average session volume of 6,037,558 shares. The stock had previously closed at $211.55.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on ABBV shares. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of AbbVie from $200.00 to $223.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $212.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of AbbVie from $181.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Citigroup raised their price target on AbbVie from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of AbbVie from $211.00 to $217.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $211.45.

AbbVie Stock Down 0.3 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 17.94, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 0.66. The company has a market capitalization of $372.31 billion, a PE ratio of 87.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.61. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $190.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $188.06.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The company reported $2.16 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by ($0.82). AbbVie had a return on equity of 296.28% and a net margin of 7.59%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.79 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be paid a $1.64 dividend. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.11%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 15th. AbbVie’s payout ratio is currently 273.33%.

Insider Activity at AbbVie

In related news, EVP Timothy J. Richmond sold 29,917 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.90, for a total transaction of $6,070,159.30. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 44,284 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,985,223.60. This represents a 40.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Kevin K. Buckbee sold 1,800 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.24, for a total value of $310,032.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 6,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,202,751.92. This trade represents a 20.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 56,439 shares of company stock valued at $11,377,057. 0.25% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AbbVie

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Swedbank AB increased its position in AbbVie by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,147,126 shares of the company’s stock worth $424,014,000 after purchasing an additional 6,810 shares in the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 20.3% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 2,012 shares of the company’s stock worth $397,000 after acquiring an additional 339 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of AbbVie by 12.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,487,363 shares of the company’s stock valued at $491,204,000 after acquiring an additional 273,078 shares during the period. United Bank acquired a new position in shares of AbbVie during the 3rd quarter valued at $217,000. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP purchased a new stake in AbbVie during the 3rd quarter worth $250,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.