With its diluted earnings per share (EPS) collapsing by nearly 55% in the third quarter to reach $1, it's easy to see why now might not seem like a good time to buy (NYSE: ABBV) stock. To make matters worse, its share prices are down by more than 9% this year so far, badly underperforming the market. Despite the bumps in the road, there's reason to believe that this company's fortunes will soon start to look up.
Does this potential for improvement make AbbVie stock a buy right now, given that its turnaround clearly hasn't started yet? Let's dive in and explore why AbbVie is underperforming -- and why that might not matter in the long run.
The third quarter was a tough three months for AbbVie. Thanks to mild to moderate contractions in its immunology, aesthetics, and oncology segments, its revenue fell by 6%, arriving at $13.9 billion. Global sales of Humira -- its psoriatic arthritis drug, and one of the best-selling medicines of all time -- imploded by 36%, bringing in only $3.5 billion.
Source Fool.com