Investors with a lot of money to spend have taken a bearish stance on AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV).

And retail traders should know.

We noticed this today when the trades showed up on publicly available options history that we track here at Benzinga.

Whether these are institutions or just wealthy individuals, we don't know. But when something this big happens with ABBV, it often means somebody knows something is about to happen.

So how do we know what these investors just did?

Today, Benzinga's options scanner spotted 13 uncommon options trades for AbbVie.

This isn't normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 23% bullish and 38%, bearish.

Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 2 are puts, for a total amount of $195,225, and 11 are calls, for a total amount of $2,536,284.

Projected Price Targets

Analyzing the Volume and Open Interest in these contracts, it seems that the big players have been eyeing a price window from $160.0 to $210.0 for AbbVie during the past quarter.

Volume & Open Interest Trends

Examining the volume and open interest provides crucial insights into stock research. This information is key in gauging liquidity and interest levels for AbbVie's options at certain strike prices. Below, we present a snapshot of the trends in volume and open interest for calls and puts across AbbVie's significant trades, within a strike price range of $160.0 to $210.0, over the past month.

AbbVie Option Activity Analysis: Last 30 Days

Biggest Options Spotted:

About AbbVie

AbbVie is a pharmaceutical firm with a strong exposure to immunology (with Humira, Skyrizi, and Rinvoq) and oncology (with Imbruvica and Venclexta). The company was spun off from Abbott in early 2013. The 2020 acquisition of Allergan added several new products and drugs in aesthetics (including Botox).

Current Position of AbbVie

• With a volume of 3,625,667, the price of ABBV is down -0.37% at $196.15.
• RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock may be overbought.
• Next earnings are expected to be released in 66 days.

What Analysts Are Saying About AbbVie

In the last month, 5 experts released ratings on this stock with an average target price of $206.6.

• An analyst from Wells Fargo persists with their Overweight rating on AbbVie, maintaining a target price of $205.
• Consistent in their evaluation, an analyst from Morgan Stanley keeps a Overweight rating on AbbVie with a target price of $218.
• Reflecting concerns, an analyst from Truist Securities lowers its rating to Buy with a new price target of $210.
• An analyst from Cantor Fitzgerald has revised its rating downward to Overweight, adjusting the price target to $200.
• An analyst from Barclays persists with their Overweight rating on AbbVie, maintaining a target price of $200.

Options are a riskier asset compared to just trading the stock, but they have higher profit potential. Serious options traders manage this risk by educating themselves daily, scaling in and out of trades, following more than one indicator, and following the markets closely.