AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) Stock Price Down 2.4% – Should You Sell?

Shares of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) traded down 2.4% on Monday . The company traded as low as $253.60 and last traded at $254.77. Approximately 6,875,470 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 5% from the average session volume of 7,206,849 shares. The stock had previously closed at $261.07.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ABBV has been the topic of several research reports. Wall Street Zen lowered AbbVie from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of AbbVie in a report on Monday, June 8th. DZ Bank raised AbbVie from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $249.00 target price on shares of AbbVie in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of AbbVie from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $234.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $256.67.

AbbVie Stock Performance

The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $220.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $220.25. The firm has a market cap of $450.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 125.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.30.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $2.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.06. AbbVie had a negative return on equity of 576.45% and a net margin of 5.79%.The firm had revenue of $15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.72 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.46 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that AbbVie Inc. will post 14.28 earnings per share for the current year.

AbbVie Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 15th will be paid a $1.73 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 15th. This represents a $6.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. AbbVie’s payout ratio is currently 340.89%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 180,779,699 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,306,353,000 after acquiring an additional 3,032,438 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in AbbVie by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 80,940,931 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,494,193,000 after acquiring an additional 1,119,274 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in AbbVie by 10.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 44,629,980 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,179,099,000 after acquiring an additional 4,190,487 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in AbbVie by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 25,824,399 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,900,617,000 after purchasing an additional 356,394 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in AbbVie in the fourth quarter worth about $5,865,055,000. Institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

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.