Investors Cheer AbbVie's Q2 Numbers, Forecast

AbbVie Inc. ABBV released its second quarter financial results number driven by continued growth of Humira. The company's EPS and revenue topped the Street analysts' expectations.

AbbVie said it earned $0.98 on a GAAP basis and that its adjusted EPS was $1.26 representing 16.7 percent year-over-year growth. This was $0.06 a share more than the analysts' estimation of $1.20 a share.

The drug maker generated net Revenues of $6.45 Billion or $6.43 Billion on adjusted basis indicating an 18.0 Percent Increase Operationally. Analysts' predicted the company to deliver $6.2 billion revenue.

The company added its revenue uptick reflected HUMIRA global reported sales growth of 17.7 percent on an operational basis. While IMBRUVICA contributed $439 Million, VIEKIRA's global contribution was $419 Million in the second quarter.

AbbVie's chairman and CEO, Richard Gonzalez, commented, "A key element to our long-term sustainable performance is our advancing pipeline and this quarter we saw several regulatory approvals, including VENCLEXTA and ZINBRYTA. We also made progress on a number of clinical development programs and completed the acquisition of Stemcentrx, which adds a promising late-stage asset for solid tumors and brings a target discovery platform to AbbVie's oncology portfolio, further enhancing the robustness of our pipeline."

Going forward, the company boosted its adjusted EPS forecast to $4.73-$4.83 from $4.62-$4.82 while projected GAAP EPS of $3.82-$3.92 for the full year. Street is looking for an EPS of $4.75.

In pre-market trading on Friday, the stock traded up 2.75 percent at $66.50.