AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Given New $195.00 Price Target at Barclays

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) had its target price lifted by Barclays from $185.00 to $195.00 in a report issued on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the stock.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on ABBV. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $187.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Guggenheim increased their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $188.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Raymond James raised their price target on shares of AbbVie from $181.00 to $189.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Monday, February 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of AbbVie from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $173.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, December 11th. Finally, HSBC cut shares of AbbVie from a buy rating to a hold rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $167.00 to $156.00 in a report on Monday, December 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $177.43.

AbbVie Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE ABBV opened at $180.35 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.87. AbbVie has a 52-week low of $130.96 and a 52-week high of $182.89. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $174.15 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $157.81. The stock has a market cap of $319.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 66.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.58.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 2nd. The company reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.76 by $0.03. AbbVie had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 162.28%. The company had revenue of $14.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.02 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.60 earnings per share. AbbVie’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that AbbVie will post 11.15 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $1.55 per share. This represents a $6.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.44%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. AbbVie’s payout ratio is currently 227.11%.

Insider Activity at AbbVie

In related news, EVP Nicholas Donoghoe sold 21,082 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.30, for a total transaction of $3,716,756.60. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 55,903 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,855,698.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other AbbVie news, CEO Richard A. Gonzalez sold 138,616 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.27, for a total value of $24,572,458.32. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 519,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $92,020,679.73. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Nicholas Donoghoe sold 21,082 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.30, for a total transaction of $3,716,756.60. Following the completion of 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 ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of AbbVie

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ABBV. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in AbbVie by 89,097.0% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 29,203,106 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,719,514,000 after acquiring an additional 29,170,366 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in AbbVie in the fourth quarter worth about $3,229,888,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 29,922.3% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,032,374 shares of the company’s stock worth $899,186,000 after purchasing an additional 6,012,281 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 17.9% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 31,571,750 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,102,311,000 after purchasing an additional 4,785,277 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in shares of AbbVie by 426.5% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,652,122 shares of the company’s stock worth $754,155,000 after purchasing an additional 3,768,579 shares in the last quarter. 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.