Company Update (NYSE:ABBV): AbbVie and CytomX Announce Strategic Collaboration for Probody Drug Conjugates

[PR Newswire] – NORTH CHICAGO, Ill. and SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., April 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — AbbVie (ABBV) and CytomX Therapeutics, Inc. (CTMX) today announced that they have entered into a collaboration to co-develop and co-commercialize Probody™ Drug Conjugates against CD71, also known as transferrin receptor 1 (TfR1). Probody therapeutics are designed to take advantage of unique conditions in the tumor microenvironment to enhance the tumor-targeting features of an antibody and reduce drug activity in healthy tissues. “We believe that the Probody platform provides a differentiated opportunity to combine with our strength in antibody drug conjugates,” said Steve Davidsen, Ph.D., vice president, oncology drug discovery, AbbVie. Read more on this. AbbVie Inc. (ABBV) , with a current value of $99.28B, began trading this morning at $60.57. A quick look at the market, the company’s stock traded between $60.54 and $61.43 with the price of the stock fluctuating between $45.45 to $71.60 over the last 52 weeks. ABBV shares are currently priced at 12.17x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them relatively expensive compared to the industry’s -5.18x earnings multiple for the same period. And for income investors, the company pays shareholders $2.28 per share annually in dividends, yielding 3.79%. In a review of the consensus earnings estimate this quarter, 18 sell-side analysts are looking at $1.14 per share, which would be $0.20 better than the year-ago quarter and a $0.01 sequential decrease. Investors should also note that the full-year EPS estimate of $4.97 is a $0.68 better when compared to the previous year’s annual results. The quarterly earnings estimate is based on a consensus revenue forecast of the current quarter of $6.02 Billion. If realized, that would be a 19.44% increase over the year-ago quarter. More recently, Societe Generale Initiated ABBV at Sell (Apr 6, 2016). Previously, Deutsche Bank Initiated ABBV at to Hold. Given all the information above, we should disclose to readers that the average price target is $70.00, which is 15.57% above than it opened this morning. See more in (NYSE:ABBV) Similar Articles: Company Update: AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV) – AbbVie/Roche drug gets U.S. approval for a rare type of leukemia Market Update: AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV) – AbbVie and Boehringer Ingelheim announce global collaboration on promising immunology compounds Market Update: AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV) – AbbVie Receives EMA Orphan Drug Designation for Investigational Compound Venetoclax for the Treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)