Analysts Have Conflicting Sentiments on These Healthcare Companies: AbbVie (ABBV) and Gilead Sciences (GILD)
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AbbVie (ABBV)
In a report issued on May 31, Courtney Breen from Bernstein maintained a Hold rating on AbbVie. The company's shares closed last Friday at $186.11.
According to TipRanks.com, Breen is a 2-star analyst with an average return of -0.1% and a 27.8% success rate. Breen covers the Healthcare sector, focusing on stocks such as Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck & Company, and Gilead Sciences.
AbbVie has an analyst consensus of Moderate Buy, with a price target consensus of $212.13, implying a 14.7% upside from current levels. In a report issued on May 30, Berenberg Bank also maintained a Hold rating on the stock with a $170.00 price target.
Gilead Sciences (GILD)
In a report released yesterday, Matthew Biegler from Oppenheimer reiterated a Buy rating on Gilead Sciences, with a price target of $125.00. The company's shares closed last Friday at $110.08.
According to TipRanks.com, Biegler is currently ranked with 0 stars on a 0-5 stars ranking scale, with an average return of -14.6% and a 28.7% success rate. Biegler covers the Healthcare sector, focusing on stocks such as Acrivon Therapeutics, Inc., Day One Biopharmaceuticals, and Zentalis Pharmaceuticals.
Currently, the analyst consensus on Gilead Sciences is a Strong Buy with an average price target of $120.47, implying a 7.9% upside from current levels. In a report issued on May 21, Jefferies also maintained a Buy rating on the stock with a $130.00 price target.
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AbbVie's ABBV stock has risen 11.5% in the past month, mainly due to its beat-and-raise performance in the second quarter. AbbVie announced its second-quarter results on July 31. It beat estimates for both earnings and sales. Earnings of $2.97 per share rose 12.1% year over year. Revenues of $15.42 billion rose 6.6% year over year on a reported basis, driven by robust sales of key drugs like Rinvoq, Skyrizi, Venclexta and Vraylar, coupled with significant contributions from newer drugs, namely Ubrelvy, Elahere, Epkinly and Qulipta. Sales of Humira and Imbruvica declined year over year. AbbVie also raised its revenue and EPS guidance for 2025 for the second time this year, backed by a strong momentum in the first half. The company expects adjusted EPS to be in the range of $11.88-$12.08, up from the previous guidance of $11.67-$11.87. Total revenues are expected to be approximately $60.5 billion, higher than the previous expectation of $59.7 billion. 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Skyrizi and Rinvoq generated combined sales of $11.6 billion in the first half of 2025. The drugs are seeing strong performance across all approved indications, especially in the popular inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) space, which includes two conditions — ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD). Importantly, Skyrizi and Rinvoq have demonstrated compelling head-to-head data against several novel therapies in clinical studies, which have given them a competitive advantage. Skyrizi sales are now annualizing at almost $18 billion and Rinvoq at over $8 billion. AbbVie expects combined sales of Skyrizi and Rinvoq to be more than $25 billion in 2025 and more than $31 billion by 2027(Skyrizi: more than $20 billion; Rinvoq: more than $11 billion). Strong immunology market growth, market share gains and momentum from new indications, such as the recent launch of Skyrizi in UC, as well as the potential for five new indications for Rinvoq over the next few years, are expected to drive these drugs' growth. AbbVie expects to file a regulatory submission for Rinvoq for the alopecia areata indication later this year. In addition, phase III data with Rinvoq in vitiligo are expected later in 2025, followed by hidradenitis suppurativa and systemic lupus erythematosus Phase III readouts in 2026. AbbVie believes that the next wave of potential approvals for Rinvoq could add roughly $2 billion to peak-year sales for the product. ABBV's Growing Oncology Portfolio AbbVie has built a substantial oncology franchise with Imbruvica and Venclexta. Its oncology segment generated combined revenues of $3.3 billion in the first half of 2025, up 4.2% year over year as higher sales of Venclexta and contributions from new drugs, Elahere and Epkinly, more than offset the decline in Imbruvica sales. Some key oncology drugs approved in the past couple of years are Epkinly and Emrelis. Elahere was added to AbbVie's oncology portfolio with the February 2024 acquisition of Immunogen. AbbVie is also strengthening its portfolio of oncology medicines with the addition of antibody-drug conjugates or ADCs, which are being considered a disruptive innovation in the pharmaceutical industry. ADCs will allow better treatment of cancer by harnessing the targeting power of antibodies to deliver cytotoxic molecule drugs to tumors. The company now has two ADCs in its commercial portfolio (i.e., Elahere and Emrelis) and two additional ADCs in late-stage development (ABBV-400 and pivekimab sunirine), along with some others in early-stage development. AbbVie's neuroscience portfolio is also contributing to top-line growth. Sales of its neuroscience drugs increased 20.3% to almost $5 billion in the first half of 2025, driven by higher sales of Botox Therapeutic, depression drug Vraylar and newer migraine drugs Ubrelvy and Qulipta. AbbVie on an Acquisition Spree AbbVie has been on an acquisition spree in the past couple of years to bolster the early-stage pipeline that should drive long-term growth. Particularly, it is signing several M&A deals in the immunology space, its core area, while also signing some early-stage deals in oncology and neuroscience areas. AbbVie has executed more than 30 M&A transactions since the beginning of 2024. A key deal was the April 2025 licensing agreement with Denmark's Gubra to develop GUB014295 (ABBV-295), a long-acting amylin analog for the treatment of obesity. The deal marked AbbVie's entry into the obesity space, dominated by Eli Lilly LLY and Novo Nordisk NVO. AbbVie plans to invest further in obesity. AbbVie recently closed the acquisition of privately held biotech Capstan Therapeutics, which will add Capstan's lead asset, CPTX2309 — a potential first-in-class in vivo tLNP anti-CD19 CAR-T therapy — to its immunology pipeline. ABBV's Slowing Aesthetics Sales & Humira Erosion Sales of AbbVie's blockbuster drug Humira are declining due to biosimilar erosion. The launch of Humira biosimilars in the United States in 2023 significantly eroded the drug's sales in 2024, with the decline being sharper in 2025 as more plans excluded branded Humira and moved to exclusive biosimilar contracts. Humira sales declined more than 50% in the first half of 2025. AbbVie expects Humira's access in the United States to continue to decrease through the second half as more plans select exclusionary formularies for existing patients. AbbVie is seeing declining sales of Juvederm fillers due to continued macro challenges and weakened consumer sentiment. The slowing growth of the U.S. facial injectables market and persistent economic headwinds, which are impacting consumer spending in some countries, including the United States, are hurting sales of Juvederm due to its higher price point. Juvederm sales declined 22.2% in the first half of 2025. ABBV Stock Price, Valuation and Estimate Revision AbbVie's stock has gained 19.3% so far this year against a decrease of 1.1% for the industry. The stock has also outperformed the sector and the S&P 500 index, as seen in the chart below. ABBV Stock Outperforms Industry, Sector & S&P 500 Image Source: Zacks Investment Research From a valuation standpoint, AbbVie is not very cheap. Going by the price/earnings ratio, the company's shares currently trade at 15.31 forward earnings, higher than 14.46 for the industry. The stock is cheaper than some other large drugmakers like Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca and J&J, but is priced much higher than most other large drugmakers. The stock is also trading above its five-year mean of 12.68. ABBV Stock Valuation Image Source: Zacks Investment Research The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 earnings has declined from $12.03 per share to $12.02, while that for 2026 has increased from $14.08 to $14.31 per share over the past 30 days. ABBV Estimate Movement Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Stay Invested in ABBV Stock Though AbbVie faces its share of near-term headwinds, the company has faced its biggest challenge — Humira's patent cliff — quite well and looks well-positioned for continued strong growth in the years ahead. AbbVie is returning to robust revenue growth in 2025, which is just the second year following the U.S. Humira LOE, driven by its ex-Humira platform. Sales of AbbVie's ex-Humira drugs rose more than 22% (on a reported basis) in the quarter, driven by Skyrizi, Rinvoq and neuroscience drugs. Boosted by its new product launches, AbbVie expects to return to mid-single-digit revenue growth in 2025 with a high single-digit CAGR through 2029, as the company has no significant LOE events for the rest of this decade. A substantial portion of this growth is expected to be driven by the robust performance of Skyrizi and Rinvoq. With no significant LOEs in this decade, AbbVie enjoys the flexibility to invest more in R&D to continue to acquire external innovation. Rising stock price and estimates (for 2026), its solid pipeline and the fact that it is entering the second half of the year with substantial momentum are good enough reasons to stay invested in this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO) : Free Stock Analysis Report Eli Lilly and Company (LLY) : Free Stock Analysis Report AbbVie Inc. (ABBV) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
