
Abbott (ABT) Stock Up, to Acquire Alere for $5.8 Billion
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Abbott Laboratories (ABT) - Get Report are increasing by 0.21% to $37.91 in pre-market trading on Monday, as the company announced it will acquire Alere (ALR) for $5.8 billion.
Abbott will pay $56 per common share for Waltham, MA-based Alere, a provider of health information through diagnostic tests.
"The combination of Alere and Abbott will create the world's premier point of care testing business and significantly strengthen and grow Abbott's diagnostics presence," Abbott CEO Miles D. White said in a statement this morning. "We want to offer our customers the best and broadest diagnostics solutions. Alere helps us do that."
Abbott's total diagnostics sales will exceed $7 billion after the close of the transaction, the company noted.
The combined company will offer testing for infectious diseases, molecular, cardiometabolic and toxicology and expand Abbott's platform to include benchtop and rapid strip tests.
Based in Abbott Park, IL, the company is engaged in the discovery, development, manufacture and sale of a range of health care products.
Shares of Alere are surging by 45.99% to $54.28 in pre-market trading on Monday.
Separately, TheStreet Ratings Team has a "Buy" rating with a score of B- on the stock.
This is driven by several positive factors, which should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks covered by the team.
The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its growth in earnings per share and expanding profit margins. The team believes its strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had lackluster performance in the stock itself.
Recently, TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author.
You can view the full analysis from the report here: ABT
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