Editor’s Note: We are holding our Triple Play Income Quarterly Review session next Tuesday (11/1) at 2:00 PM Eastern time. We will review the last quarter, get an update on our current positions, a look at potential new positions, go over where our stocks are in the current economic cycle and talk further about capital allocation. If you haven’t done so, you can register for the Triple Play Income Quarterly Review Session here.

No trades or actions to take today but a quick update on 3 of our stocks that announced earnings this week.

AbbVie (ABBV):  146.24

AbbVie announced earnings before the market this morning as an EPS of $3.66 beat by $0.10 while revenue of $14.81B missed by $130m despite being up 3% year-over-year. The company lowered guidance and the stock is down 5% today.

Of course, the sell-off is due to the expected drop in Humira sales outside the U.S. as generics are hitting the market for the drug. Humira goes off patent next year in the U.S. However, AbbVie continues to fill the sales funnel with new drugs coming to market along with the substantial development of their other product lines including the Neuroscience Division, Aesthetics segment, and Botox Cosmetics.

The best news out of the report is that AbbVie declared a $1.48 per share quarterly dividend … a 5% increase and the 10^th year in a row they have increased the dividend. We still like AbbVie as a long-term dividend pharma play going into next year.

We rolled our calls the other day so no action is needed today.

ACTION:  No Action.

Cardinal Health (CAH):  76.53

Cardinal Health stock has gone on a nice run and is up 8% in 2 weeks. We will let our 28 Oct 70 calls be exercised and the stock called away. We entered the stock at $69 so we will pick-up a $1.00 on the position as well as keeping our $1.00 of premium we collected.

ACTION:  No Action.

Gilead Sciences (GILD):  78.60

Gilead hit all the jackpot on its earnings announcement last night. The stock is up 12% today.

Third Quarter EPS of $1.90 beat by 0.47 while revenues of $7.04B beat by $910M and the company guided full year estimates higher. Plus, the company picked up a couple of analyst upgrades today as well.

Gilead stock price was already running away from our 28 Oct 65 call earlier this week with no chance to roll it for a credit. We will let the stock be called away and collect more cash selling puts on Monday.

The good news is Gilead stock may have got its “mojo” back as a growth stock again … and maybe we will see a consistent rise in the stock price for a while like we used to get from GILD 5 years ago. We’ll see.

ACTION:  No Action.

Third consecutive week of the market finishing higher despite several bad earnings reports in the tech sector. Money is flowing into value dividend stocks in search of a safer haven … which is good news for our Triple Play Income portfolio heading into the end of the year.

I look forward to getting together next Tuesday (11/1) at 2:00 PM Eastern for our Quarterly Review.

Have a good weekend.