By Colin Kellaher

 

Shares of AbbVie Inc. (ABBV) rose more than 2% on Thursday amid an upgrade and positive comments from analysts at Citigroup.

Citi upgrade AbbVie to "buy" from "neutral" and raised its price target to $90 from $87 amid a positive view of the biopharmaceutical company's pending $63 billion takeover of Allergan Inc. (AGN).

The analysts said they expect AbbVie will extract significant shareholder value from Allergan's franchises, adding that the deal dilutes AbbVie's exposure to loss of U.S. patent exclusivity for its blockbuster Humira, the world's biggest-selling drug.

Citi also said the market underappreciates the revenue potential of AbbVie's Skyrizi and Rinvoq.

Shares of AbbVie were recently up 2.2% to $73.67.

 

Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 26, 2019 12:04 ET (16:04 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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