NEW YORK, Dec. 27, 2025, 5:15 PM ET — Market closed.
AbbVie Inc. (NYSE: ABBV) heads into the weekend with Wall Street shut and year-end positioning in full swing, after a quiet, post-holiday session on Friday left major U.S. indexes essentially unchanged. In thin trading, investors continue to weigh two competing narratives: a strong 2025 for equities and the seasonally bullish “Santa Claus rally” window — versus the reality that year-end liquidity can amplify moves on any surprise headline. [1]
Where AbbVie stock stands heading into Monday’s session
AbbVie’s last trade/close sits at $229.98, leaving the stock near the upper end of its 52-week range ($164.39–$244.81) and within striking distance of its October peak. [2]
The broader market backdrop is supportive but choppy. On Friday, the Dow slipped 0.04%, the S&P 500 dipped 0.03%, and the Nasdaq eased 0.09%, as the market paused after a five-session run-up. Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group, told Reuters the market was “catching our breath” after the strong rally and noted the Santa-rally period had just begun. [3]
For investors looking ahead to the next regular session on Monday (Dec. 29), the key question is whether AbbVie continues to behave like a “defensive growth + income” holding — a profile that can attract allocations when investors rotate away from crowded trades into more moderate valuations. Reuters’ Week Ahead column highlighted that rotation theme, noting non-tech areas — including healthcare — have been showing strength into year-end. [4]
What’s new on ABBV in the last 24–48 hours
Even with no blockbuster AbbVie corporate release over the past two days, ABBV has been in the news cycle through a mix of investor-focused analysis, institutional-positioning stories, and a legal/regulatory update.
1) Fresh 2026 “buy/sell/hold” debate and dividend narrative
A widely circulated analysis on Nasdaq.com framed AbbVie as a “Dividend King” (counting dividend increases across its Abbott heritage) and argued the company’s post-Humira transition is increasingly defined by the growth of newer assets. The piece was published Saturday and is among the most-read ABBV explainers currently circulating into the weekend. [5]
Separately, The Motley Fool’s weekend investing coverage also spotlighted AbbVie as a dividend-focused idea, emphasizing the company’s ongoing shift away from Humira’s patent-loss era and toward its next growth cycle. [6]
2) Institutional positioning and filings-focused headlines
MarketBeat published multiple items Saturday highlighting changes in institutional ownership disclosures tied to prior-quarter filings, including a note that Regent Peak Wealth Advisors reported a new stake (5,829 shares) in Q3 filings and reiterated that institutions/hedge funds hold about 70% of AbbVie shares. These stories are not the same as “real-time” buys/sells in the open market, but they often influence weekend investor chatter about sponsorship and sentiment. [7]
3) Legal headline: South Dakota 340B dispute continues
A more material, policy-adjacent story surfaced in regional coverage Friday morning: a federal judge kept South Dakota’s new 340B drug-discount law in effect while AbbVie’s challenge proceeds, denying AbbVie’s request for a preliminary injunction. [8]
The judge’s order (dated Dec. 22, 2025) also notes AbbVie has been accepted into a federal 340B Rebate Model Pilot Program beginning Jan. 1, 2026, and the court found the state law did not pose a barrier to that participation for purposes of the injunction request. [9]
Why investors may care: 340B remains a long-running point of friction between drugmakers and covered entities (hospitals/clinics serving vulnerable populations). For large pharmas, it’s typically a margin / channel strategy issue rather than an existential threat — but it’s still a headline category that can influence sentiment around U.S. drug policy risk.
4) Clinical/pipeline attention: epcoritamab (Epkinly) data coverage
On the medical-news side, AJMC published a report Saturday on phase 2 EPCORE DLBCL-3 trial results for fixed-duration epcoritamab (Epkinly; Genmab and AbbVie) in older, chemotherapy-ineligible large B-cell lymphoma patients, citing a 70% overall response rate and 58% complete remission in the response-evaluable population. While not a market-moving “earnings” item on its own, these types of clinical readouts contribute to the longer-term pipeline narrative investors track when underwriting biopharma multiples. [10]
The fundamentals investors are pricing: post-Humira era, dividend growth, and guidance
AbbVie’s core equity story remains anchored in how successfully it replaces the cash flows once dominated by Humira. In its most recent quarterly report, AbbVie highlighted continued growth from its newer immunology engines:
- Skyrizi net revenues of $4.708 billion (up 46.8% on a reported basis)
- Rinvoq net revenues of $2.184 billion (up 35.3% on a reported basis)
- Humira net revenues of $993 million (down 55.4% reported) [11]
Just as important for stock valuation, AbbVie raised its full-year 2025 adjusted diluted EPS guidance to $10.61–$10.65. [12]
For income investors — a major ABBV shareholder cohort — AbbVie also announced a 5.5% dividend increase, lifting the quarterly dividend to $1.73 per share (annualized $6.92), payable Feb. 17, 2026, to shareholders of record as of Jan. 16, 2026. [13]
That dividend hike is a key reason AbbVie remains a staple in “defensive” portfolios even when growth stocks dominate headlines. At current levels around $230, MarketBeat lists ABBV’s dividend yield at roughly 3%. [14]
Wall Street outlook: consensus targets and what they imply into 2026
On the forecast side, aggregated analyst data continues to reflect a constructive (though not euphoric) stance.
MarketBeat’s consensus tracking shows:
- Average 12-month price target: $245.84
- High: $289
- Low: $194
- Consensus rating: “Moderate Buy” [15]
From a weekend, “market closed” standpoint, the practical takeaway is straightforward: Street targets sit modestly above current prices, suggesting analysts generally expect ABBV to grind higher rather than re-rate dramatically in the near term — consistent with a large-cap pharma profile where dividends and steady earnings matter as much as multiple expansion.
Technical setup: what the indicators say going into the next open
Technical signals are not fundamentals, but they often shape positioning in the first hours of the next session — especially in year-end, low-volume tape.
As of Friday evening, Investing.com’s technical dashboard displayed a “Strong Buy” summary signal for ABBV across multiple timeframes, with the daily readout showing RSI(14) at 58.56 (Buy) and MACD(12,26) at 0.67 (Buy), among other indicators. [16]
MarketBeat’s snapshot also places ABBV near the top of its recent range, listing a 52-week high of $244.81 and 52-week low of $164.39, with average daily volume around 5.19 million shares versus about 1.59 million shares traded on Friday’s holiday-thinned session. [17]
Policy risk remains a headline category: drug pricing and 340B
Two policy-related threads remain on investors’ radar as 2026 approaches:
- Drug pricing initiatives. Reuters reported last week that AbbVie and several other major drugmakers were expected to be near agreements tied to President Donald Trump’s most-favored-nation (MFN) pricing initiative, part of a broader push to reduce certain U.S. prescription drug prices. [18]
- 340B channel restrictions and state laws. This week’s South Dakota court decision keeping the state’s 340B-related law in place — while the AbbVie challenge proceeds — underscores that 340B remains an active legal and legislative battlefield across states. [19]
For ABBV shareholders, the investing implication is less about a single ruling and more about headline frequency: policy stories can dominate a slow news cycle (like year-end weekends) and influence Monday’s opening tone.
What investors should know before the next session
With markets closed now and the next regular session approaching Monday, here’s what typically matters most for ABBV into the open:
- Watch the “rotation” tape. Reuters has highlighted investor attention on rotation into sectors outside mega-cap tech — including healthcare — into year-end. If that theme continues, ABBV can benefit from allocation flows even without company-specific catalysts. [20]
- Monitor weekend policy/legal headlines. Drug pricing and 340B stories can break outside market hours, and year-end liquidity can amplify the first reaction when futures reopen and premarket trading begins.
- Dividend timeline is approaching. AbbVie’s next dividend (at the new $1.73 quarterly rate) is payable Feb. 17, 2026, with a Jan. 16, 2026 record date — details long-term income investors often factor into hold/sell decisions, especially around year-end rebalancing. [21]
- Respect low liquidity. Reuters noted Friday’s session had light volume and few catalysts — a dynamic that often persists into the final trading days of the year. Price moves can look “bigger than the news.” [22]
Bottom line
AbbVie enters the final stretch of 2025 with shares holding near $230 and investor attention split between three themes: (1) an income-driven dividend story reinforced by a fresh dividend raise; (2) the durability of its post-Humira growth engines, led by Skyrizi and Rinvoq; and (3) a policy/legal news cycle that can steer sentiment even on slow headline days. [23]
References
1. www.reuters.com, 2. www.marketbeat.com, 3. www.reuters.com, 4. www.reuters.com, 5. www.nasdaq.com, 6. www.fool.com, 7. www.marketbeat.com, 8. www.kotaradio.com, 9. law.justia.com, 10. www.ajmc.com, 11. news.abbvie.com, 12. news.abbvie.com, 13. news.abbvie.com, 14. www.marketbeat.com, 15. www.marketbeat.com, 16. www.investing.com, 17. www.marketbeat.com, 18. www.reuters.com, 19. www.kotaradio.com, 20. www.reuters.com, 21. news.abbvie.com, 22. www.reuters.com, 23. news.abbvie.com
