AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Stock Price Up 1.5% - Here's What Happened

Key Points

• AbbVie shares rose 1.5% in Thursday trading, reaching an intraday high of $219.38 before settling around $218.66. Volume came in below average, with about 5.1 million shares traded.
• The biggest catalyst was FDA approval of DECNUPAZ for BPDCN, a rare and aggressive blood cancer. The approval marks AbbVie’s first ADC approved for a blood cancer and strengthens its oncology pipeline.
• Analyst sentiment remains constructive, with several firms maintaining or raising bullish targets; consensus price target is $253.43 and the stock carries a “Moderate Buy” rating. Recent earnings also beat expectations, with revenue up 12.4% year over year.

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV - Get Free Report) shares shot up 1.5% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $219.38 and last traded at $218.6560. 5,115,714 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 26% from the average session volume of 6,904,654 shares. The stock had previously closed at $215.40.

More AbbVie News

Here are the key news stories impacting AbbVie this week:

• Positive Sentiment: The U.S. FDA approved AbbVie’s DECNUPAZ (pivekimab sunirine-pvzy) for adult patients with blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN), an ultra-rare and aggressive blood cancer. This is AbbVie’s first ADC approved for a blood cancer and expands its oncology footprint. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: AbbVie also announced a first-in-human Phase 1 study for ABBV-1451, signaling continued early-stage pipeline expansion and reinforcing longer-term growth potential. TipRanks article
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst commentary remained constructive, with Piper Sandler raising its price target on AbbVie and pointing to strong progress in the company’s inflammatory bowel disease pipeline. Yahoo Finance article
• Neutral Sentiment: AbbVie’s broader oncology update showed mixed Q1 performance, with sales pressure from Imbruvica partially offset by gains in Venclexta, Elahere, and Epkinly. Zacks article
• Neutral Sentiment: AbbVie’s and Ironwood’s label expansion for Linzess in pediatric constipation adds to the product’s reach, but this is a smaller incremental positive compared with the FDA approval of DECNUPAZ. Yahoo Finance article
• Negative Sentiment: No major negative company-specific catalyst stood out in the latest headlines; the main offset is that some of AbbVie’s older oncology assets continue to face sales pressure.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ABBV. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on AbbVie in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $260.00 target price for the company. Sanford C. Bernstein restated a "market perform" rating on shares of AbbVie in a report on Thursday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets restated an "outperform" rating on shares of AbbVie in a report on Monday, March 9th. Evercore set a $235.00 target price on AbbVie in a report on Friday, May 15th. Finally, William Blair restated an "outperform" rating on shares of AbbVie in a report on Monday, March 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have given a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AbbVie currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $253.43.

AbbVie Stock Up 1.5%

The firm has a market capitalization of $386.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 107.71, a P/E/G ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.32. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $208.27 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $219.68.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $2.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.72 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 5.79% and a negative return on equity of 576.45%. AbbVie's revenue for the quarter was up 12.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.46 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 14.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other AbbVie news, SVP David Ryan Purdue sold 5,230 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.56, for a total transaction of $1,221,518.80. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 2,654 shares of the company's stock, valued at $619,868.24. This represents a 66.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AbbVie

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ABBV. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in AbbVie by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 180,779,699 shares of the company's stock worth $41,306,353,000 after buying an additional 3,032,438 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of AbbVie by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 80,940,931 shares of the company's stock worth $18,494,193,000 after acquiring an additional 1,119,274 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of AbbVie by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 44,629,980 shares of the company's stock worth $10,179,099,000 after acquiring an additional 4,190,487 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in shares of AbbVie by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 25,824,399 shares of the company's stock worth $5,900,617,000 after acquiring an additional 356,394 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of AbbVie in the 4th quarter worth approximately $5,865,055,000. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AbbVie Company Profile

AbbVie is a global, research-driven biopharmaceutical company that was created as a spin-off from Abbott Laboratories in 2013 and is headquartered in North Chicago, Illinois. The company focuses on discovering, developing and commercializing therapies for complex and often chronic medical conditions. Its operations span research and development, manufacturing, regulatory affairs and commercialization, with an emphasis on bringing specialty medicines to market across multiple therapeutic areas.

AbbVie's product portfolio and pipeline cover several major therapeutic categories, including immunology, oncology, neuroscience, virology and women's health.

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