Still basking in the afterglow of an encouraging quarterly earnings report, AbbVie(NYSE: ABBV) stock saw a healthy 1.5% rise in price across Monday's trading session. What helped was a series of post-earnings price target increases from analysts tracking the healthcare company's fortunes.
AbbVie beat on both the top and bottom lines in its fourth quarter
AbbVie's Monday pop followed a nice rise on Friday, the morning it reported those results.
Although the company's fourth-quarter revenue fell by 5% year over year (to $11.1 billion), and its non-GAAP (adjusted) net income withered to just under $5 billion ($2.79) from the $6.4 billion in the same period of 2022, both headline figures topped the consensus analyst estimates.
Meanwhile, the healthcare company guided for an adjusted per-share net profit of $11.05 to $11.25 for the entirety of 2024. This was in line with the average prognosticator estimate of $11.24.
A clutch of price target raises
As often happens when a publicly traded company notches twin beats for a quarter, several analysts got more bullish on AbbVie's prospects Monday. One of the clutch of raisers was Piper Sandler's Christopher Raymond, who now feels the stock is worth $185 per share (he formerly valued it at $180).
Raymond maintained his overweight (buy) recommendation as he did so, commenting in a new research note that AbbVie stock is undervalued. He wrote that the company is "firing on all cylinders," particularly with respect to its immunology products.
Other analysts bumped their price targets higher, if only incrementally. One of the more cautious raisers was Bank of America Securities' Geoff Meacham, who added $2 to his level for a new tally of $167. Compared to his Piper Sandler peer, Meacham isn't as positive on AbbVie's prospects, as he kept his neutral recommendation on the shares intact.
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