Zacks senior medical products analyst Gregory Aurand, CFA maintains his Hold rating on C. R. Bard, Inc. (BCR), the medical products company after revising the six-month target price significantly. We excerpted the following details from his report:
'Newly acquired products and new product launches should help stimulate the weak Surgery group. On December 18th, BCR provided 2008 guidance and our estimates are at the low end of management's expectations. All in, the company expects, at least, a revenue growth of 10% and 14% EPS growth in 2008.
'Management is expecting Surgery to grow 4%-9% (including the Genzyme {GENZ} acquired line) in 2008, while Vascular is expected to grow 14%-16% (including the acquired LifeStent), Urology is expected to grow 8%-10% and Oncology's outlook is 13%-15% in 2008. Operationally, BCR expects 100 basis points in operating margin improvement and a lower tax rate.
'Despite new product flow, we believe the company will find it increasingly difficult to generate continued operational improvement to help drive EPS. Stock buybacks could also play an important role. The stock currently trades at roughly 21x our 2008 expected EPS of $4.35. We believe the company should trade in-line with the comparables 1.5x 2008 P/E/G average, hence our target moves up to $91. Our rating remains Hold.'
Read the full analyst report on BCR.
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