AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-five brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $253.4286.

Several research firms have issued reports on ABBV. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $240.00 price target on shares of AbbVie in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Bank of America upgraded AbbVie from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $234.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on AbbVie from $270.00 to $278.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, DZ Bank upgraded AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AbbVie

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in AbbVie by 17.4% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 22,912 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,072,000 after buying an additional 3,401 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in AbbVie by 72.7% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 7,279 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,294,000 after buying an additional 3,064 shares in the last quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. lifted its stake in AbbVie by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. now owns 16,466 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,056,000 after buying an additional 789 shares in the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC lifted its stake in AbbVie by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 120,035 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,281,000 after buying an additional 5,274 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC lifted its stake in AbbVie by 117.3% in the 2nd quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 1,135,034 shares of the company’s stock valued at $210,685,000 after buying an additional 612,702 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

AbbVie Trading Up 1.3%

NYSE ABBV opened at $215.64 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $208.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $219.58. AbbVie has a 12-month low of $181.73 and a 12-month high of $244.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $381.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 106.23, a PEG ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 0.32.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $2.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.59 by $0.06. AbbVie had a negative return on equity of 576.45% and a net margin of 5.79%.The company had revenue of $15 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.72 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.46 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that AbbVie will post 14.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.