Piper buyers on AbbVie weakness, raises price target raised to $175

Piper Sandler analyst Christopher Raymond raised the firm’s price target on AbbVie to $175 from $170 and keeps an Overweight rating on the shares, which the firm would be buyers of amid today’s weakness. The firm believes today’s post-earnings selloff “ignores and underappreciates what we see as a business firing on all cylinders,” the analyst tells investors. Despite a “strong” Q3 beat and FY23 raise, the firm suspects investors are “more fixated” on the fact that management raised FY24 floor EPS guidance by “only” 30c to $11 per share, which is lower than consensus at $11.05. However, the firm sees this as “nothing more than prudent messaging,” or in other words “sandbagging,” until formal FY24 guidance is issued, the analyst added.