AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Stock Rating Upgraded by Daiwa Capital Markets

Key Points

• AbbVie has been upgraded from "neutral" to "outperform" by Daiwa Capital Markets, with a price target of $214.00, indicating an upside potential of 8.98%.
• Multiple analysts have raised their price targets for AbbVie recently, with Morgan Stanley increasing theirs to $255.00, while Raymond James increased theirs to $236.00.
• AbbVie reported earnings of $2.97 per share for the last quarter, missing estimates, but generated revenue of $15.42 billion, surpassing expectations while showing a 6.6% year-over-year increase.

Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded shares of AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV - Free Report) from a neutral rating to an outperform rating in a research report released on Thursday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. Daiwa Capital Markets currently has $214.00 target price on the stock.

ABBV has been the topic of several other research reports. Citigroup raised their price objective on AbbVie to $205.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 11th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on AbbVie from $250.00 to $255.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Raymond James Financial raised their price objective on AbbVie from $227.00 to $236.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. BNP Paribas raised AbbVie to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded AbbVie from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $214.43.

AbbVie Price Performance

AbbVie stock traded down $0.76 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $198.10. 4,101,321 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,210,216. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $189.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $191.06. The firm has a market cap of $349.96 billion, a PE ratio of 94.33, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 0.50. AbbVie has a 12 month low of $163.81 and a 12 month high of $218.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.14, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.64.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The company reported $2.97 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $3.24 by ($0.27). The business had revenue of $15.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.93 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 6.45% and a return on equity of 699.66%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.65 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that AbbVie will post 12.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 15th will be given a $1.64 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 15th. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.3%. AbbVie's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 312.38%.

Insider Buying and Selling at AbbVie

In other news, EVP Nicholas Donoghoe sold 13,295 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.51, for a total value of $2,639,190.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 58,247 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $11,562,611.97. This trade represents a 18.58% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.25% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in AbbVie by 25,841.6% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 10,234,737 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,144,382,000 after buying an additional 10,195,284 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in AbbVie in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,819,154,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in AbbVie by 550.9% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,332,054 shares of the company's stock valued at $804,116,000 after buying an additional 3,666,521 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in AbbVie by 31.6% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 14,646,908 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,068,820,000 after buying an additional 3,519,187 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new stake in AbbVie in the 2nd quarter valued at about $581,817,000. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.