Textual content measurement
AbbVie inventory is up 15.4% up to now this yr.
Courtesy of AbbVie
In a quarterly earnings report out Friday, the drugmaker
AbbVie
reduce its full-year earnings steerage, and a lot of its key medicine missed Wall Road estimates.
The corporate’s first-quarter earnings had been roughly in step with Wall Road expectations.
AbbVie (ticker: ABBV) reported adjusted diluted earnings of $3.16 per share, barely beating the FactSet analyst consensus of $3.14 per share, and up 9.3% from the identical quarter final yr. First-quarter web income was $13.5 billion, up 4.1% on a reported foundation, and slightly below the FactSet consensus estimate of $13.7 billion.
The missed expectations for a lot of essential merchandise, together with the atopic dermatitis drug Rinvoq, may unsettle traders waiting for subsequent yr. That’s when AbbVie’s mega-blockbuster Humira—which is used to deal with rheumatoid arthritis and different circumstances—begins to face competitors from so-called biosimilars within the U.S.
“Whereas we’re followers of the AbbVie story, we count on right now’s outcomes to stress ABBV shares as individuals digest a number of essential merchandise coming in beneath expectations forward of subsequent yr’s Humira lack of exclusivity,” wrote
Mizuho
analyst Vamil Divan.
The corporate issued new adjusted diluted earnings per share steerage for the complete 2022 fiscal yr, saying it now expects between $13.92 and $14.12 this yr, beneath the earlier estimate of between $14 and $14.20. Analysts had been anticipating full-year earnings of $14.16 per share, in accordance with FactSet.
AbbVie shares had been down 4.7% in premarket buying and selling. The inventory is up 15.4% up to now this yr, certainly one of a lot of massive drugmakers which can be outperforming the
S&P 500,
which is down 10% this yr.
“This yr is off to a powerful begin,” mentioned AbbVie CEO Richard Gonzalez. “Our momentum mixed with ramping contributions from new merchandise and new indications will drive accelerating income and EPS progress by the remainder of the yr.”
The corporate mentioned that its new steerage displays a reduce of $0.08 per share attributable to acquired in-process analysis and improvement and milestone bills, all incurred through the first quarter. Divan, in his Friday word, wrote that the steerage reduce “seems primarily as a result of industrywide accounting change requested by the SEC on tips on how to account for IPR&D and milestone funds.”
Gross sales of Humira had been $4.7 billion, down 2.7% on a reported foundation from the identical quarter final yr, and beneath the $4.9 billion analyst consensus estimate, in accordance with FactSet.
Gross sales of Skyrizi, a psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis drug, had been $940 million, beating the $909.1 million FactSet consensus estimate and up 63.7% from the identical quarter final yr, earlier than its label was expanded to incorporate psoriatic arthritis.
Gross sales of Rinvoq, nonetheless, had been $465 million, in need of the $489 million FactSet consensus estimate.
Humira will face biosimilar competitors within the U.S. starting subsequent yr, slicing into its gross sales. The drug, one of many bestselling branded pharmaceutical merchandise in historical past, has been AbbVie’s tentpole product for the reason that firm spun off from
Abbott Laboratories
(ABT) in 2013.
Write to Josh Nathan-Kazis at josh.nathan-kazis@barrons.com