Goldman Sachs’ List Of Stocks Popular With Mutual Fund Managers: Top 20 Stocks

8. AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Number of  Mutual Funds: 21

Number of Hedge Fund Investors in Q2 2024: 67

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) is a global pharmaceutical giant with a diverse product portfolio. The firm’s products range from helping cancer patients to allowing beauty enhancement and treating eye disorders. Its financial heft is evident from AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)’s $55 billion trailing twelve month revenue sits at $55 billion and $13.1 billion in cash and equivalents. Roughly 68% of the firm’s revenue comes through three drugs. These are its arthritis drugs Skyrizi and Rinvoq and another arthritis drug Humira. AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)’s scale and resources have enabled it to pivot to Skyrizi and Rinvoq after the Inflation Reduction Act forced it to negotiate Humira prices. They also enable the firm to have a robust drug pipeline. AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) has two drugs in phase three trials. These are its ovarian cancer treatment Elahere and its Parkinson’s drug called Tavapadon. Positive developments for these could unlock additional revenue for AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) and help it mitigate pain points such as struggling Botox and Juvederm sales particularly in China due to adverse macroeconomic conditions.

PGI Jennison mentioned AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) in its Q2 2024 investor letter. Here is what the fund said:

“AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) is a global pharmaceutical company with a commercial presence in four key therapeutic verticals: immunology, hematology/oncology, neuroscience, and aesthetics. AbbVie’s flagship product Humira is widely used across multiple immunology indications (totaling $21b in worldwide FY22 sales, or 37% of overall sales in the last year before biosimilar entry) but is declining steeply due to U.S. biosimilar entry in 2023. However, AbbVie’s successful development and launch of next-gen immunology drugs Skyrizi and Rinvoq should enable revenues and earnings to grow strongly from its trough earnings-per-share (EPS) in 2023, with Skyrizi and Rinvoq now expected to generate >$27B in sales by 2027, driving an HSD revenue compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2024 to 2029. Importantly, AbbVie faces limited patent cliffs through the end of the decade post-Humira. We turned more constructive on AbbVie stock in late 2023 due to these dynamics but decided to reduce exposure following the stock’s rapid run-up to start the year. This was driven by our expectation that faster-than-expected Humira erosion and one-off headwinds in 2025 will reduce growth to below consensus 2025 expectations. As a result, we were underweight AbbVie again by the time the market started reacting to the 2025 concerns, which were crystallized by management commentary on the 1Q earnings call. We have since exited our position.”