BTIG Believes Abbot (ABT) May be Renegotating Terms of Alere (ALR) Deal; Affirms at 'Buy'

BTIG affirms Abbot Labs (NYSE: ABT) at Buy with a price target of $45 and comments on Alere (NYSE: ALR) chatter following commentary from Abbott CEO Miles White earlier.

Analyst Dane Leone said: Comments from CEO Miles White regarding the pending acquisition of Alere: "I'm going to be careful how I answer any questions about Alere, because as you know they had delays filing their 10-K. We don't know when they'll file their proxy. We don't know when they're going to have a shareholder vote. So right now I'd say it's not appropriate for me to comment on Alere."

Leone continued:

Why do we think ABT may be renegotiating?

1. As of the information we know now, nothing is in specific breach of the merger agreement.
2. If a material event occurred, either from the accounting review and/or a notice of breach sent by Abbott to Alere, Alere and/or Abbott would need to file a regulator disclosure for the event (an 8-K).
3. CEO commentary was reiterated by the ABT team in post-call follow-up, which indicates a level of purpose for the vague commentary.

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Abbott Labs click here. For more ratings news on Abbott Labs click here.

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