AbbVie (ABBV) closed at $90.50 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.89% move from the prior day. The stock lagged the S&P 500’s daily gain of 1.27%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 1.18%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.87%.
Heading into today, shares of the drugmaker had lost 5.26% over the past month, lagging the Medical sector’s loss of 0.54% and the S&P 500’s gain of 0.37% in that time.
ABBV will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect ABBV to post earnings of $2.79 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 19.74%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $12.85 billion, up 51.52% from the prior-year quarter.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $10.46 per share and revenue of $45.45 billion, which would represent changes of +17% and +36.62%, respectively, from the prior year.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for ABBV should also be noted by investors. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company’s business and profitability.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. ABBV is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Digging into valuation, ABBV currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 8.58. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 14.95, which means ABBV is trading at a discount to the group.
We can also see that ABBV currently has a PEG ratio of 1.44. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company’s expected earnings growth rate into account. Large Cap Pharmaceuticals stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.07 based on yesterday’s closing prices.
The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 111, putting it in the top 44% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
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