AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Stock Price Down 0.2% – Here’s Why

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) traded down 0.2% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $182.50 and last traded at $182.75. 637,020 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 88% from the average session volume of 5,534,343 shares. The stock had previously closed at $183.08.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Guggenheim raised their target price on shares of AbbVie from $212.00 to $221.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of AbbVie from $231.00 to $224.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. William Blair raised shares of AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $228.00 to $208.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $203.50.

AbbVie Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $188.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is $181.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $323.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.63.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.92 by $0.08. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 244.01%. The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.95 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 10.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be given a dividend of $1.64 per share. This is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is 215.28%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AbbVie

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ABBV. Fairway Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of AbbVie in the second quarter valued at $26,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of AbbVie in the second quarter valued at about $27,000. Groupama Asset Managment grew its stake in shares of AbbVie by 40.3% in the third quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 135,749 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 38,974 shares in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of AbbVie in the third quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of AbbVie by 4,140.0% in the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 212 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 207 shares in the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is currently 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.