BMO Capital Markets Has Lowered Expectations for AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Stock Price

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) had its price objective reduced by BMO Capital Markets from $228.00 to $208.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. BMO Capital Markets currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on ABBV. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on AbbVie from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of AbbVie in a report on Monday, August 5th. TD Cowen raised their price target on AbbVie from $195.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on AbbVie from $196.00 to $209.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on AbbVie from $231.00 to $224.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $203.83.

AbbVie Stock Down 0.4 %

AbbVie stock opened at $169.63 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $299.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.90, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.63. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $193.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $180.84. AbbVie has a 12 month low of $136.30 and a 12 month high of $207.32. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.64.

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

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This is a positive change from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. AbbVie’s payout ratio is 215.28%.

Institutional Trading of AbbVie

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 6.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 170,376,746 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,025,605,000 after purchasing an additional 9,978,415 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 1,745.0% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,728,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $933,698,000 after purchasing an additional 4,471,806 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 249.1% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 4,373,184 shares of the company’s stock worth $796,357,000 after purchasing an additional 3,120,310 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its position in shares of AbbVie by 6.9% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 48,098,784 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,758,789,000 after purchasing an additional 3,110,601 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB acquired a new position in shares of AbbVie during the first quarter worth $367,372,000. Hedge funds and other 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.