Topic: How To Invest

Pat: Could you please give me your opinion of Abbott Labs and its spinoff, AbbVie? I am a long-standing member of the Inner Circle. Thank you.

Article Excerpt

Abbott Laboratories, $33.14, symbol ABT on New York (Shares outstanding: 1.6 billion; Market cap: $53.0 billion; www.abbott.com), split into two publicly traded companies on January 3, 2013. Abbott Laboratories has retained the company name and stock symbol. It makes medical devices, diagnostic tests, pediatric and adult nutritional products and generic drugs. The other firm, called AbbVie, $36.59, symbol ABBV on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 1.6 billion; Market cap: $59.2 billion; www.abbvie.com), mainly makes pharmaceuticals, including the parent company’s branded drug portfolio, led by blockbuster arthritis treatment Humira, painkiller Vicodin and cholesterol drug Niaspand. Under the breakup, Abbott handed out shares of AbbVie to its shareholders in a tax-free transaction. The patent on AbbVie’s Humira drug expires in 2016. That’s a big risk factor, but the company has 10 drugs in the final Phase III stage of development, including a potentially promising next-generation hepatitis C drug; the intestinal gel Duopa, for the treatment of advanced Parkinson’s disease; and Daclizumab, for multiple sclerosis. It…