AbbVie reports third-quarter results this morning, and the number everyone will debate is $216 million. The company’s October 5 8-K disclosed that Q3 2026 earnings will include acquired IPR&D and milestones expense of $216 million on a pre-tax basis, representing an unfavorable impact of $0.11 to adjusted diluted EPS. That dropped the company’s guided Q3 range from $3.84-$3.88 down to $3.73-$3.77 per share. For income investors watching the quarterly payout, the charge raises a fair question: is AbbVie’s dividend still being funded by the business, or is it being held up by accounting choices?
The answer is in the revenue lines, not the EPS adjustments.
What the Post-Humira Business Actually Looks Like
Second-quarter worldwide net revenues came in at $16.99 billion, an increase of 10.2 percent on a reported basis. That number matters because it is built on a very different foundation than the Humira era. In Q2, Skyrizi sales climbed 24.4% to $5.505 billion, while Rinvoq revenue increased 24.5% to $2.525 billion. Together, those two drugs generated more than $8 billion in quarterly revenue, compared with $756 million from Humira. The drug that once carried the entire company is now a rounding error. The drugs replacing it are still accelerating.
Full-year Skyrizi global revenues are now expected at $21.7 billion, raised again after the Q2 call. Combined, Skyrizi and Rinvoq remain the growth engine for the company, and that is the revenue base behind the dividend.
Why the Research Charge Is Not a Red Flag
IPR&D charges appear in quarter after quarter at AbbVie because the company is perpetually acquiring early-stage assets and paying milestones on programs already in development. This is not financial engineering. It is the cost of maintaining a pipeline deep enough to matter past the current decade. AbbVie has highlighted regulatory submissions and late-stage programs for Rinvoq in vitiligo and alopecia areata, and for Skyrizi in Crohn’s disease subcutaneous induction, with Rinvoq also in late-stage evaluation for hidradenitis suppurativa and systemic lupus erythematosus.
Pipeline spending at this scale always invites a comparison across the sector. Gilead recently committed $1.275 billion upfront for a Phase 1 IBD asset with no published efficacy data, a reminder of how aggressively large-cap pharma is bidding for pipeline optionality right now.
The $216 million charge this quarter is smaller than the IPR&D hit in the first half of the year. Q2 carried a $291 million IPR&D and milestones expense. Q1 brought an unfavorable impact of $0.41 per share related to acquired IPR&D and milestones expense. The business absorbed each of those and still grew revenues double digits. A shrinking charge, against a growing revenue base, is a healthy direction.
The Dividend Math
AbbVie raised its quarterly dividend to $1.73 per share beginning with the dividend payable in February 2026. The payout has gone up every year since AbbVie became a standalone company. Some screens put AbbVie’s dividend payout ratio around the mid-80% range, which raises questions about sustainability if earnings growth slows or unexpected expenses arise. That concern is real, but it depends entirely on whether the revenue growth continues. So far, it has.
Analysts going into the quarter have centered around an earnings estimate near $3.77 per share on revenue around the mid-$17 billion range. If the actual results land anywhere near that neighborhood, the underlying cash generation that funds the dividend looks durable, not leveraged.
What to Watch Going Forward
The Q3 report is less interesting as a single data point than as a pace check on the 2026 full-year outlook. As of the Q2 update, management’s full-year 2026 revenue outlook was about $67.6 billion.
Any investor owning ABBV for income should be tracking Skyrizi and Rinvoq growth rates, not the quarterly IPR&D line. Those growth rates are what pay the dividend. Today’s charge is the price of keeping them growing.
