AbbVie Declares Quarterly Dividend

Analysts forecast increases in 2017 EPS and sales

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AbbVie Inc. (ABBV, Financial) annouced a quarterly dividend of 64 cents per share on Feb. 16.

The dividend will be paid on May 15 to shareholders of record as of April 13.

Based on the quarterly dividend, the annual dividend paid will be $2.56 per share. The dividend yield is 4.14%.

Year to date, AbbVie has lost 1.36%. Despite its downtrend, the analysts' average target price per share is $69.78, which represents a 13% upside from the current share price of $61.77. Therefore, analysts still see room for further improvement in the coming months.

The recommendation rating is 2.5, which means analysts’ recommendations sit between buy and hold. The rating ranges between 1.0 (Strong Buy) and 5.0 (Sell).

For the first quarter of 2017, analysts forecast the pharmaceutical company will generate EPS of $1.26, a 9.6% increase from EPS of $1.15 reported in the first quarter of 2016. The forecast for first-quarter 2017 EPS ranges between a low of $1.23 and a high of $1.32.

Concerning revenue, analysts forecast $6.48 billion on average for the quarter, which is 8.70% lower than first-quarter 2016 revenue. It ranges between a low estimate of $6.38 billion and a high estimate of $6.56 billion.

For the year, analysts estimate EPS of $5.49, ranging between a low of $5.44 and a high of $5.6. This represents a 14% increase from the same figure a year ago. Revenue is forecasted to increase 8.60% to $27.77 billion in 2016, up from $25.56 billion in 2015.

As of the most recent quarter, AbbVie had approximately $7.95 billion in cash and securities. The total debt amounted to $37.31 billion.

The long-term debt-equity ratio is 786.02 versus an industry average ratio of 7.76, according to Reuters. This suggests the company is highly indebted. However, the interest coverage ratio is 8.22, which means AbbVie can easily pay the interest expenses on its outstanding debt.

AbbVie has 1.63 billion shares outstanding, of which 1.62 billion is float. The percentage of shares held by insiders is 0.10% and by institutions is 73.60%. In addition, the board of directors recently "authorized a $5 billion increase to AbbVie's existing stock repurchase program."

AbbVie has a market capitalization of $100.38 billion and an enterprise value of $129.74 billion. The pharmaceutical company is trading at 15.52 times the book value and at 11.68 times the Ebitda.

The 52-week range is between $54.01 per share and $68.12 per share. The forward price-earnings (P/E) ratio is 9.59.

In the last quarter of 2016, David Dreman (Trades, Portfolio), Joel Greenblatt (Trades, Portfolio) and Ken Fisher (Trades, Portfolio) increased their positions in AbbVie by 52.53%, 36.69% and 1.83%, while Mario Gabelli reduced his position by 0.59%.

Richard Pzena (Trades, Portfolio) established a position in AbbVie, buying 3,476 shares.

NWQ Managers sold out.

Disclosure: I have no position in AbbVie.

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