Sometimes bad news travels in packs. AbbVie Inc. (ABBV) shares dropped nearly 4% Thursday after the pharmaceutical company served up a triple whammy of disappointing developments.
The Guidance Cut
First up: AbbVie announced it's taking a $1.3 billion charge for acquired IPR&D and milestone expenses in the fourth quarter of 2025. That's going to knock 71 cents off adjusted earnings per share, which hurts.
The company now expects 2025 adjusted EPS between $9.90 and $9.94, with fourth-quarter adjusted EPS landing at $2.61 to $2.65. Here's the thing though—AbbVie's earlier October 31 guidance didn't account for potential IPR&D or milestone expenses beyond the third quarter. The company also noted its year-end results are still being finalized, meaning the quarter ended December 31, 2025 hasn't been wrapped up yet.
The Downgrade
Adding fuel to the fire, Wolfe Research analyst Alexandria Hammond downgraded AbbVie from Outperform to Peer Perform, basically moving the stock from "we like it" to "meh, it's fine."
The Deal That Wasn't
And then there's the acquisition drama. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that AbbVie was in advanced talks to buy Revolution Medicines Inc. (RVMD), a cancer-drug developer valued around $16 billion. Revolution Medicines shares jumped nearly 29% in after-hours trading on the news. But AbbVie quickly told Reuters: not happening. The company said it's not in discussions, deflating those merger hopes.
AbbVie shares were trading down 3.97% at $224.17 Thursday.
