Argus Upgrades AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) to “Buy”

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) was upgraded by Argus from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on ABBV. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of AbbVie from $214.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. William Blair upgraded AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup raised their price target on AbbVie from $215.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on AbbVie from $195.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $201.00.

AbbVie Stock Up 0.6 %

ABBV opened at $201.69 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $194.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $180.10. AbbVie has a 52 week low of $135.85 and a 52 week high of $207.32. The stock has a market cap of $356.25 billion, a PE ratio of 70.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.63.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $3.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.92 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $14.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.28 billion. AbbVie had a return on equity of 226.99% and a net margin of 9.22%. AbbVie’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.95 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that AbbVie will post 10.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of AbbVie

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in AbbVie during the 1st quarter valued at about $646,000. Quent Capital LLC raised its holdings in AbbVie by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 8,740 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,592,000 after acquiring an additional 283 shares during the last quarter. Commerce Bank lifted its position in AbbVie by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 519,647 shares of the company’s stock valued at $94,628,000 after acquiring an additional 25,500 shares in the last quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group boosted its stake in AbbVie by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 13,218 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,407,000 after purchasing an additional 180 shares during the last quarter. Finally, C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors raised its stake in shares of AbbVie by 13.7% in the first quarter. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors now owns 20,826 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,792,000 after purchasing an additional 2,515 shares during the last quarter. 70.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.