AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Shares Up 1.5% – Here’s What Happened

Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) shot up 1.5% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $219.38 and last traded at $218.6560. 5,115,714 shares traded hands 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.

Key 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 brokerages have commented on ABBV. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on AbbVie from $270.00 to $278.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Bank of America upgraded AbbVie from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $234.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Monday, March 9th. DZ Bank upgraded shares of AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price target on shares of AbbVie from $262.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AbbVie currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $253.43.

AbbVie Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $386.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 107.71, a PEG ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.32. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $208.27 and its 200 day simple moving average is $219.68.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $2.65 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.72 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 5.79% and a negative return on equity of 576.45%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.46 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that AbbVie Inc. will post 14.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP David Ryan Purdue sold 5,230 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.56, for a total value of $1,221,518.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 2,654 shares in the company, valued at approximately $619,868.24. The trade was a 66.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 0.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 177,747,261 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,155,601,000 after buying an additional 448,554 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 17.0% in the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 1,044,690 shares of the company’s stock valued at $241,888,000 after buying an additional 151,644 shares in the last quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 25.5% in the third quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. now owns 401,760 shares of the company’s stock valued at $93,024,000 after buying an additional 81,625 shares in the last quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 10.5% in the third quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC now owns 55,647 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,885,000 after buying an additional 5,302 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Procyon Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 19.9% in the fourth quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 32,752 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,484,000 after buying an additional 5,427 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

About AbbVie

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.