RBC Capital has initiated coverage of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE: ABBV) with an outperform rating and set a price target of $260.00. The brokerage said it departs from a more cautious market narrative that suggests AbbVie’s beat-and-raise story has concluded and that competition represents a significant threat to the company’s immunology business.
RBC Capital noted that consensus estimates are adjusting to stronger-than-expected sales for Skyrizi and Rinvoq, but maintained that AbbVie remains in the early phases of indication expansion for those products and should continue to outperform expectations. The firm argued investors are overlooking the company’s durable growth profile and highlighted that there are no meaningful loss-of-exclusivity events this decade that are not contingent on mergers and acquisitions.
On valuation, RBC highlighted that AbbVie currently trades at less than 16 times earnings, a multiple more typical of pharmaceutical companies facing substantial loss-of-exclusivity risks than of high-growth peers. At the same time, the company is delivering top-tier earnings-per-share growth of approximately 17%, compared with roughly 6% among peers, and the brokerage said AbbVie’s price-to-earnings-to-growth valuation appears more attractive than that of Eli Lilly and Company.
The stock was reported trading at $228.51 with a market capitalization of $404.38 billion. An InvestingPro analysis included in the briefing suggested the shares may be slightly overvalued relative to its Fair Value assessment, a nuance RBC acknowledged even as it argued for upside on a re-rating.
RBC pointed to strong cash generation, a roughly 3% dividend yield and what it described as consumer-like durability in certain product lines as factors that justify a valuation re-rating. InvestingPro Tips cited in the coverage noted that AbbVie has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years, underscoring a sustained commitment to shareholder returns. The firm described the overall risk-reward profile as compelling.
Other recent developments and analyst moves cited alongside RBC’s initiation included the following:
- AbbVie announced a $380 million investment to construct two active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing facilities at its North Chicago campus. The new plants will concentrate on neuroscience and obesity medications and incorporate artificial intelligence into manufacturing processes.
- Barclays began coverage with an overweight rating and assigned a $275.00 price target, calling out the company’s potential for operating leverage.
- AbbVie declared a quarterly cash dividend of $1.73 per share, continuing what the coverage described as a history of significant dividend increases since 2013.
- Moody’s Ratings upgraded AbbVie to A2 and revised the company’s outlook to stable, citing strong commercial execution in its core immunology and neuroscience portfolios.
- Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated its Overweight rating with a $250.00 price target following AbbVie’s fourth-quarter 2025 financial results, which Cantor described as "solid" and "respectable."
Collectively, these moves and corporate developments were presented as evidence of ongoing confidence from both credit and equity analysts in AbbVie’s strategic initiatives and financial performance.