Is AbbVie Stock Actually Overpriced?
AbbVie (ABBV) grew revenue 10.4% over the past twelve months and turned 33.9% of it into operating profit, second only to Eli Lilly among its peers on both counts. Its stock returned 24.9% over the same twelve months, fifth of the six. What the business delivered and what the market paid for it have come apart.
Who In This Group Actually Got Paid?
Johnson & Johnson makes the contrast sharpest. JNJ grew revenue 8.1% over the same twelve months on an operating margin of 26.8%—edging out Pfizer’s 26.7%—while its stock returned 53.9%. It also trades at 30.5 times earnings, where AbbVie trades at 71.5.
| ABBV | JNJ | PFE | MRK | BMY | LLY | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Market Cap ($ Bil) | 451.1 | 641.2 | 157.6 | 357.4 | 130.2 | 1,002.2 |
| PE Ratio | 71.5 | 30.5 | 36.4 | 112.6 | 14.0 | 37.5 |
| LTM Revenue Growth | 10.4% | 8.1% | -0.2% | 4.6% | 3.1% | 49.6% |
| LTM Operating Margin | 33.9% | 26.8% | 27% | 10.5% | 28% | 49.7% |
| 12M Stock Return | 24.9% | 53.9% | 19.7% | 77% | 42% | 50.6% |
The slower grower, JNJ, had the better year. MRK’s and PFE’s multiples in that table sit on trailing earnings that include a loss quarter, making both trailing multiples heavily distorted by a prior loss quarter rather than reflective of normalized earnings power. AbbVie still beat the S&P 500’s 17.9% return over those twelve months, indicating sustained institutional and retail demand rather than a broader sell-off. It now trades about 4% below its two-year high of $265.97. The shortfall is against its own industry, not against the market.
What Is AbbVie Actually Selling?
Two immunology drugs, mostly. SKYRIZI, the psoriasis and Crohn’s disease drug, booked $5.5 billion of sales in the second quarter of 2026, up 24% on an operational basis. RINVOQ added more than $2.5 billion, up 23.7%. HUMIRA fell 36.1% on an operational basis as biosimilars took its share.
SKYRIZI accounted for nearly a third of AbbVie’s $17 billion quarter, but more importantly, its $1.1 billion year-over-year expansion drove roughly two-thirds of the company’s total top-line growth. Management added $600 million to full-year 2026 revenue guidance over the course of 2026, so the operation kept delivering after the peer gap opened.
Is AbbVie Really That Expensive?
Not on the earnings that management talks about. AbbVie reported $2.03 a share in the second quarter of 2026 and $3.65 on its adjusted basis, and the 71.5 is built on trailing reported earnings. Against the $13.87 to $14.07 of adjusted earnings management has guided for 2026, a range that excludes acquired IPR&D expense beyond the second quarter, the $255 share price is just over 18 times. The 71.5 and the 18 are one company on two earnings bases, and choosing between them is the whole valuation argument.
That earnings guide is also what would settle it, and management trimmed it, not the revenue guide, for a telling reason: the existing business added $0.10 of improvement, then $0.14 of dilution from the planned purchase of Apogee Therapeutics took more than that back out. The risk is plain. AbbVie is buying the next decade out of the earnings its reported multiple measures, it expects to issue long-term debt to pay for Apogee, and SKYRIZI has to keep growing while the pipeline arrives. If your question is what you pay against forward earnings rather than reported ones, our forward valuation discount screen puts every price on that basis in one place.
The Best Stock In The Group Is Still A Single Stock
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