Why AbbVie Stock Took a Nosedive Today – And What It Means for Your Portfolio
Pharma giant AbbVie just got sucker-punched by the market. Here's why investors are hitting the sell button.
The bloodbath in biotech: When even reliable dividend payers start bleeding, you know the sector's in trouble. AbbVie's slump isn't happening in isolation—it's part of a broader sector rout that's got Wall Street's prescription pad trembling.
Patent cliff diving: The ghost of Humira's lost exclusivity keeps haunting shareholders. With biosimilars eating into what was once pharma's golden goose, AbbVie's growth story looks sicker than a placebo-group participant.
Pipeline problems? R&D setbacks always hurt, but they're downright lethal when your cash cow's already on life support. The street's clearly not buying management's 'next-gen therapies' pitch—not when trial data reads like an adverse events list.
Funny how these 'one-time charges' and 'temporary headwinds' keep becoming permanent fixtures in pharma earnings reports. Maybe someone should invent a drug for corporate amnesia.
Second-quarter rises
That late-session swoon was kind of a shame, because AbbVie's second quarter boasted some good fundamentals.
Image source: Getty Images.
Total revenue came in at just over $15.4 billion, an increase of almost 7% over the year-ago result. Of its blockbuster drugs, Skyrizi did quite well, with sales rising 62% to $4.4 billion. Rinvoq also rocketed higher, by 42% to more than $2 billion. On the other hand, the fading Humira -- now that it's been subject to competition by biosimilars -- fell by 58% to less than $1.2 billion.
As for net income, on a non-GAAP (adjusted) basis it landed at nearly $5.3 billion, or $2.97 per share. That was well up from the year-ago profit of $4.7 billion.
On average, the pundits tracking AbbVie stock were collectively expecting a shade under $15 billion for revenue, and $2.96 per share for adjusted profitability.
AbbVie raised its bottom-line guidance for the entirety of 2025. It now believes adjusted net income will amount to $11.88 to $12.08 per share, up from the previous estimate of $11.67 to $11.87.
Trump's new move
The bullishness generated by those fundamentals and the lifted guidance was tempered by the latest demand from President Donald Trump. Thursday afternoon, news broke that he sent letters to a clutch of major U.S. pharmaceuticals insisting that they reduce prices for prescription drugs within 60 days.
One of the letters was sent to AbbVie CEO Rob Michael. In it, TRUMP wrote, "Right now, brand name drug prices in the United States are up to three times higher on average than elsewhere for the identical medicines."
"This unacceptable burden on hardworking American families ends with my administration," the president added.
