AbbVie Stock Volatile On $200M Deal To Buy Nimble Therapeutics: Retail Still Bearish

This cautious stance follows a series of setbacks for AbbVie, including last month’s failure of two mid-stage trials for a schizophrenia drug.

Shares of AbbVie Inc. oscillated between gains and losses Friday as the company’s latest acquisition drew mixed reactions from investors. 

AbbVie announced a $200 million deal to acquire Nimble Therapeutics, with additional interim funding and potential development milestone payments.

The acquisition includes Nimble’s lead investigational drug for psoriasis, currently in preclinical development, alongside a pipeline of candidates targeting autoimmune diseases. 

AbbVie will also gain access to Nimble’s proprietary peptide platform, which accelerates the identification of drug candidates.

"The addition of Nimble's pipeline to AbbVie's existing pipeline, combined with our deep clinical and translational expertise in immunology, represents an important growth opportunity," said Jonathon Sedgwick, senior vice president and global head of discovery research, AbbVie.

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for AbbVie remained ‘bearish’, with message volume at high levels. 

This cautious stance follows a series of setbacks for AbbVie, including last month’s failure of two mid-stage trials for a schizophrenia drug acquired in its $8.7 billion purchase of Cerevel Therapeutics.

AbbVie has been aggressively pursuing M&A deals to diversify its pipeline as sales of its blockbuster drug Humira decline. 

Just last week, AbbVie finalized a $1.4 billion acquisition of Aliada Therapeutics, targeting an experimental Alzheimer’s treatment in early development.

Brokerage firm BofA Securities reinstated coverage of AbbVie on Tuesday with a Neutral rating and a $191 price target, representing a modest 10% upside. 

The analyst noted AbbVie is a relatively "quiet" stock with durable long-term growth, but added that the "problem" is that this seems discounted in its already above-average valuation.

AbbVie’s 60.3x trailing earnings multiple is significantly higher than peers like Amgen (35.09x) and Regeneron (18.34x).

Year-to-date, AbbVie shares have gained just 9%, underperforming broader market benchmarks.

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