AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Upgraded at Scotiabank

Scotiabank upgraded shares of AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) to a strong-buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the company. Raymond James Financial set a $256.00 price objective on AbbVie in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of AbbVie from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. HSBC set a $225.00 price target on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $195.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of AbbVie from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $214.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $240.14.

AbbVie Price Performance

NYSE:ABBV opened at $232.43 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $224.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $203.90. The firm has a market cap of $410.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 110.68, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.14, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.74. AbbVie has a one year low of $163.81 and a one year high of $244.81.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 31st. The company reported $1.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $15.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.58 billion. AbbVie had a return on equity of 699.66% and a net margin of 6.45%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.00 EPS. AbbVie has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 3.320-3.360 EPS. Research analysts expect that AbbVie will post 12.31 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 17th. Investors of record on Friday, January 16th will be paid a $1.73 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 16th. This represents a $6.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. This is a boost from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.64. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio is 524.24%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AbbVie

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ABBV. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in AbbVie by 17.4% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 22,912 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,072,000 after purchasing an additional 3,401 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 72.7% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 7,279 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,294,000 after buying an additional 3,064 shares in the last quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC boosted its position in AbbVie by 0.3% during the first quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 37,862 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,933,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Bailard Inc. grew its stake in AbbVie by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 17,611 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,690,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Saturna Capital Corp raised its holdings in AbbVie by 6.0% in the 1st quarter. Saturna Capital Corp now owns 717,186 shares of the company’s stock valued at $150,265,000 after acquiring an additional 40,521 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.