Alere Inc. (ALR, Financial) announced Sept. 28 it has settled with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in regard to an investagion of accounting issues concerning the company's foreign subsidiaries.
According to the terms of the agreement, the diagnostic tests manufacturer will pay approxiately $13 million and has agreed to a cease-and-desist order, which was issued by the SEC, without admitting its innocence or guilt in regard to the findings in the order.
Alere is in the process of being acquired by pharmaceutical giant Abbott Laboratories (ABT, Financial) for $5.3 billion, or $51 per share. The deal will close on Oct. 3. Â
Alere is currently trading around $50.74 per share on the New York Stock Exchange with a market capitalization of $4.44 billion, a price-book (P/B) ratio of 3.87, a forward price-earnings (P/E) ratio of 23.26 and a price-sales (P/S) ratio of 1.90.
The stock has gained approximately 30% year to date and is trading slightly below the 52-week high of $50.80 per share. The 52-week low is $34.41 per share.
Alere has an average target price of $51 per share and a recommendation rating of 3 out of 5.
Abbott is currently trading around $53.64 per share. The company has market capitalization of $93.2 billion, a P/S ratio of 3.67, a P/B ratio of 2.95 and a P/E ratio of 75.55.
The stock is uptrending and has gained nearly 40% year to date. The average target price per share is $55.53, and the recommendation rating is 2 out of a total of 5.
The company distributes an annual dividend of $1.06 through quarterly payments of 26.5 cents, for a dividend yield of 2.02%.
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned in this article.
