AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Shares Down 2.3%

Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) dropped 2.3% during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $160.00 and last traded at $162.10. 2,089,446 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 63% from the average session volume of 5,607,509 shares. The stock had previously closed at $165.97.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ABBV. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on AbbVie from $187.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 5th. HSBC downgraded AbbVie from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $167.00 to $156.00 in a research note on Monday, December 18th. Barclays raised their target price on AbbVie from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Guggenheim raised their target price on AbbVie from $188.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, William Blair upgraded AbbVie from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AbbVie currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $177.43.

AbbVie Stock Down 2.2 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $176.42 and its 200 day moving average price is $159.70. The firm has a market cap of $287.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 59.44, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.58.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The company reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.76 by $0.03. AbbVie had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 162.28%. The firm had revenue of $14.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.02 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.60 earnings per share. AbbVie’s revenue was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 11.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be issued a $1.55 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $6.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.82%. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is currently 227.11%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 52,870 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.71, for a total transaction of $9,184,047.70. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 243,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,375,512.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, EVP Azita Saleki-Gerhardt sold 52,870 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.71, for a total transaction of $9,184,047.70. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 243,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,375,512.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Nicholas Donoghoe sold 21,082 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.30, for a total value of $3,716,756.60. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 55,903 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,855,698.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 383,324 shares of company stock valued at $67,780,003 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AbbVie

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 89,097.0% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 29,203,106 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,719,514,000 after acquiring an additional 29,170,366 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of AbbVie during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,229,888,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 29,922.3% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,032,374 shares of the company’s stock valued at $899,186,000 after acquiring an additional 6,012,281 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 17.9% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 31,571,750 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,102,311,000 after acquiring an additional 4,785,277 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 426.5% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,652,122 shares of the company’s stock valued at $754,155,000 after acquiring an additional 3,768,579 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

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.