Marcap

Abbott Labs Is a Healthy Investment - Barron's

While on the surface Abbott certainly appears to be an excellent company, I would be very concerned about such a high dollar value (and percentage) of Intangible Assets on its Balance Sheet. Just how realistic is $10.1 Billion in Goodwill, and another $5.7 Billion in Other Intangibles? Remove both, and you're left with less than $2 Billion in S/H Equity to cover 1.55 Billion shares outstanding....and that equates to a pretty low net book value for a share trading at almost $55.00.

Nonetheless, even if the company's assets are all stated realistically, if the company continues to pay dividends as it has in the past, I fail to see any good reason for the stock to rise beyond its current price, at least not within the foreseeable future.