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$VRX


aleant Pharmaceuticals International ( VRX) is scheduled to report earnings on Feb. 28 , and analysts haven't been shy about making their opinions on the stock known before judgment day. Barclays pointed to the need for Valeant to make enough money to avoid violating its debt covenants, while Guggenheim predicted Valeant would meet or beat "sales expectations for the base business." Stifel also weight in positively. And now, RBC's Douglas Miehm and Joel Hurren have weighed in, arguing that the focus will be on Valeant's 2017 EBITDA guidance--and that anything below $3.75 billion would be bad news:
We believe that the focus of Valeant's Q4/16 release and call will be on 2017 guidance and how much lower it will be relative to 2016 results. While VRX stated that 2017 Adj. EBITDA would be lower than 2016's on its Q3/16 call, we anticipate that Adj. EBITDA guidance below $3.75B could lead to further share price weakness. We anticipate revenue guidance of $8.9--9.2B , Adj. EBITDA of $3.8--4.1B , and Adj. EPS of $4.50--5.00 . We currently forecast $9.1B in revenue (consensus $9.1B , $8.4--9.6B range), $4.0B in Adj. EBITDA (consensus $3.9B , $3.4--4.2B range), and $4.64 in Adj. EPS (consensus $4.95 , $4.26--5.67 range).
Miehm and Hurren also cut their price target on Market Perform-rated Valeant to $22 from $29 .
Shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International have gained 1.1% to $15.13 at 10:35 a.m. today.
More at Barron's Stocks to Watch blog, http://blogs.barrons.com/stockstowatchtoday/