Piper Jaffray Remains Bullish on Merit Medical Systems (MMSI); Sees Potential for Renewed Success

Piper Jaffray maintained an Overweight rating on Merit Medical Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: MMSI), and cut the price target to $22.00 (from $28.00), following the company's 4Q earnings report. MMSI reported in line 4Q15 sales/EPS vs. management guidance. Slightly lower operating income was offset by a better than expected tax rate. Newly-issued FY16 EPS guidance bracketed consensus estimates. Piper Jaffray believes that MMSI can re-visit its mid-2014 to mid-2015 success.

Analyst Thomas Gunderson commented, "With an in line Q4 and 2016 guidance we believe MMSI can re-visit its mid-2014 to mid-2015 success. MMSI shares increased 101% from 9/30/14 to 9/30/15 (vs. -3% S&P500) as Merit management assembled a string of quarters that exceeded expectations. Since then Merit’s stock price has had two steps down, first in October, when Q3 revenue growth was tepid and earnings missed expectations resulting in stock being down 22% by 10/30/15; total return for 2015 was just 7%. The second, smaller step down was part of the market slide in 2016, with MMSI down 9% YTD as of Monday’s close. With the just reported Q4 earnings report and the 2016 guidance essentially in line with expectations, we believe that if MMSI management can sustain 3-4 quarters of exceeding financial expectations then MMSI’s stock can once again strongly outperform the markets and its sector peers. We reiterate our Overweight rating and lower our PT to $22 from $28."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Merit Medical Systems, Inc. click here. For more ratings news on Merit Medical Systems, Inc. click here.

Shares of Merit Medical Systems, Inc. closed at $16.89 yesterday.

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