CytoSorbents Corporation (CTSO)

[Bsbs12]

2 Healthcare Stocks Set to Rally into the New Year
Marty Shtrubel- January 10, 2020, 4:04 PM EDT

In a similar vein to Alimera, CytoSorbents is a beaten-down stock, displaying even further wreckage. It lost 52% of its share price during last year’s bull run.

CTSO’s blood purification technologies are used to control deadly inflammation in critically-ill and cardiac surgery patients. After exhibiting revenue growth of 51% in 2018, the growth curve slowed down to 9% year-over-year in the first three quarters of 2019.

D’Silva explained, “While the slower top-line growth could be concerning at first glance, the two primary reasons for the slowdown were related to two CS distributors and Fresenius Medical Care—which, together, accounted for ~15%-20% of the CTSO top line in 2018—entering 2019 with excess inventory, as well as CTSO running into sales-force bandwidth issues in its largest market, Germany.”

With CTSO commencing sales in Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and the Netherlands, D’Silva foresees a turnaround in the months ahead.

“While we don’t anticipate CTSO realized significant benefits from new direct sales regions in 4Q19, as most new sales hires were onboarded in 2H19, we do expect CTSO’s expanded footprint to provide a significant benefit this year… Meanwhile, We believe there are numerous clinical and regulatory catalysts are on the horizon that should be significant value drivers for the stock if successful,” said the analyst.

As a result, D’Silva kept his Buy rating and supports it with an ambitious $12 price target. Attaining this number will provide a very healthy 210% gain in the next twelve months.

Does the Street agree? Those who are taking notice certainly do. 3 Buy ratings and no Holds or Sells add up to a unanimous Strong Buy consensus rating. The recommendation comes alongside an average price target of $11 and implies upside potential of 176%.