Bulletin: AbbVie Inc. Ratings Are Unaffected By Accelerated Share Repurchase Plan

NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) April 26, 2018—S&P Global Ratings said today that its ratings and outlook on AbbVie Inc. (A-/Stable/A-1) are not affected by the company's announced plan to repurchase up to $7.5 billion of common stock. Earlier this year, the company's board authorized a share repurchase program of $10 billion, which we stated was within our estimated capacity for the current rating. In our opinion, the company is front-loading these repurchases, which we assumed would occur over two years. Our rating on AbbVie continues to reflect its well-established position in the branded pharmaceuticals market; a highly profitable, market-leading product in Humira; and a promising pipeline over the next few years, despite product concentration in Humira. We expect solid

...NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) April 26, 2018--S&P Global Ratings said today that its ratings and outlook on AbbVie Inc. (A-/Stable/A-1) are not affected by the company's announced plan to repurchase up to $7.5 billion of common stock. Earlier this year, the company's board authorized a share repurchase program of $10 billion, which we stated was within our estimated capacity for the current rating. In our opinion, the company is front-loading these repurchases, which we assumed would occur over two years. Our rating on AbbVie continues to reflect its well-established position in the branded pharmaceuticals market; a highly profitable, market-leading product in Humira; and a promising pipeline over the next few years, despite product concentration in Humira. We expect solid growth over the next two years, even with biosimiliar competition to Humira in Europe, given expected growth of newer drugs such as Imbruvica and newly launched Mavyert. This will enable the company to generate sizable...

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