AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Increases Dividend to $1.64 Per Share

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 30th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be given a dividend of 1.64 per share on Friday, February 14th. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.25%. This is a boost from AbbVie’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55.

AbbVie has raised its dividend by an average of 7.8% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 52 years. AbbVie has a dividend payout ratio of 51.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect AbbVie to earn $12.11 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 51.2%.

AbbVie Stock Up 6.4 %

Shares of ABBV opened at $201.55 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $193.85 and its 200 day moving average price is $178.91. AbbVie has a 12-month low of $135.85 and a 12-month high of $202.35. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.51. The firm has a market cap of $355.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 59.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.63.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 business had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.28 billion. AbbVie had a net margin of 9.71% and a return on equity of 203.66%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.95 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that AbbVie will post 10.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ABBV has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $190.00 price target on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $170.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Barclays increased their price objective on AbbVie from $200.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on AbbVie in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $203.00 target price for the company. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $199.39.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Richard A. Gonzalez sold 66,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.52, for a total value 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. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

AbbVie Company Profile

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.