...and we are back! Abbott Labs and AbbVie

Happy New Year! The Investment Club is back for more discussion about the stock market and the economy, and we hope reading our blog is one of your New Year's resolutions! :)

We are starting off the year with, as we promised, Pharmaceuticals. These are companies that focus on developmental medicine, drug testing and production, medical products, and health or nutritional health products. As we will begin discussing shortly, success for these companies depend largely on testing results, competition, health conferences, monopolies, and company splits. The most recent split is our focus of research today, Abbott Labs (ABT) and AbbVie (ABBV).

The first of the two companies, Abbott Laboratories, works on the discovery and development of health care products, which include both medical and nutritional products. The company was established in 1900 and is now headed by CEO Miles White. Since the company was made public, it saw little growth until the Information Era (1998). This epoch of new industry and technology created an amazing boom in growth, and, accompanied by a 2:1 split, increased revenue and EPS for ABT. In late November 2012, Abbott Labs was given a 'buy' stock rating considering its 25% increase in equity (a company's balance sheet includes 'assets = liabilities [debt] + equity [gains, money owned]). A few days later, it announced a split within the company to produce a new independent company, AbbVie. Now, Abbott Labs is doing well, and we expect continued growth. We bought some stocks (simulated on Investopedia) at $30.07, and sold them on Friday before closing, at $32.74.

Our other company for today, AbbVie, is the latest 'offspring' of Abbott Laboratories. This company was created in 2012 from the split and began trading on the market on January 2nd, 2013. AbbVie focuses more on specialized drug testing, including treatments for arthritis, HIV, cystic fibrosis, Parkinson's, other major degenerative diseases, and many more. Unfortunately, we cannot delve far into the stock history of ABBV as it shares all history with ABT up until its stock independence. However, we can say that AbbVie is showing prominent efforts already. It was considered one of the best pharmaceutical investments for 2013, and it is a company we are already investing more in. We bought 8 stocks are $35 a week ago, and they now sit at $37.32, with about 40 more to be bought on Tuesday.