AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Short Interest Down 8.7% in September

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) saw a large decline in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 17,790,000 shares, a decline of 8.7% from the August 31st total of 19,490,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 5,110,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.5 days. Approximately 1.0% of the company’s shares are sold short.

AbbVie Stock Performance

Shares of ABBV traded down $0.57 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $196.91. The stock had a trading volume of 3,924,256 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,362,256. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.81. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $192.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $176.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $347.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.43, a PEG ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.64. AbbVie has a fifty-two week low of $135.85 and a fifty-two week high of $199.95.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $2.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.02 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.71% and a return on equity of 203.66%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.91 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that AbbVie will post 10.86 EPS for the current year.

AbbVie Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be given a $1.55 dividend. This represents a $6.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.15%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, October 15th. AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 183.98%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ABBV has been the subject of several recent research reports. Piper Sandler Companies reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $190.00 price target on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Barclays increased their price target on AbbVie from $187.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price target (up from $195.00) on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Friday, July 26th. William Blair upgraded AbbVie to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of AbbVie from $196.00 to $209.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, AbbVie currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $191.64.

Insider Activity at AbbVie

In other AbbVie news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 66,500 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.52, for a total transaction of $12,403,580.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 446,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $83,299,645.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other AbbVie news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 66,500 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.52, for a total transaction of $12,403,580.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 446,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $83,299,645.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 282,845 shares of AbbVie stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.00, for a total value of $49,497,875.00. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 513,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $89,792,325. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.25% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AbbVie

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 6.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 170,376,746 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,025,605,000 after purchasing an additional 9,978,415 shares during the period. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 249.1% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 4,373,184 shares of the company’s stock valued at $796,357,000 after purchasing an additional 3,120,310 shares during the period. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 6.9% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 48,098,784 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,758,789,000 after purchasing an additional 3,110,601 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 156.0% in the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 3,474,020 shares of the company’s stock valued at $632,619,000 after purchasing an additional 2,116,997 shares during the period. Finally, Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of AbbVie in the first quarter valued at about $367,372,000. 70.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.