5 Safe Blue Chip Stocks to Buy in June

4. AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 76

Share Price (as of June 9): $145.43

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) is a biopharmaceutical firm based in Illinois, which boasts a healthy portfolio of revenue-generating drugs, and many innovative therapies in its future pipeline. The company doles out a 3.88% dividend to shareholders as well, and has gained 25.11% in the last 12 months as of June 9.

On May 2, Wells Fargo analyst Mohit Bansal kept an ‘Overweight’ rating on AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) shares, and increased the price target to $200 from $165. He notes that right now is the time to own ABBV shares, given they are at least 35% undervalued considering the firm’s long-term growth potential. Bansal rates AbbVie as his top pick in the sector. In early June, clinical trials showed that the Imbruvica drug, developed by AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 25% in patients with rare lymphoma cancer.

In the first quarter, AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) posted earnings per share of $3.16, outperforming estimates by $0.02. Quarterly revenue was recorded at $13.5 billion, up 4.66% from the year-ago quarter but falling short of analysts’ expectations by $74.9 million.

Arrowstreet Capital, with 4.65 million shares worth $754.2 million, was the biggest shareholder of AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) in the first quarter. In total, 76 hedge funds reported bullish bets on the company shares, with a collective price tag of $3.66 billion.

Here is what Miller Howard Investments had to say about AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) in its Q3 2021 investor letter:

“While optimistic about a recovery, we continue to balance our cyclical holdings with dividend-payers in stable, less economically-sensitive industries. We hold three pharmaceutical companies, (which includes) AbbVie (ABBV). All three have strong cash flows and balance sheets, making their high dividends reasonably safe. The investment controversy surrounding these pharma companies is whether they can develop or acquire new products to replace their current blockbuster drugs. The low valuations on these stocks reflects what we believe to be undue pessimism by investors on the prospects for new drugs.”