Zacks has confirmed a neutral rating for the stock with a PT of $10. Analysts at Deutsche Bank have increased the PT from $7 to $9 and have a positive rating on the stock. RBC Capital also increased their price target on shares of Boston Scientific from $8.00 to $11.00 a few weeks ago with an outperform rating. Several analysts have hold or buy rating with the average target of around $8.4. The expectations are for an earnings per share of $0.41 for 2013. This indicates that the company is expected to be net positive in 2013. The stock has anyway done well for the investors in the past one year, and factored a lot of the expected turnaround. This indicates that while the rise has been good so far, it may become a little difficult to keep the stock growth going. It has doubled from the low in July and is making yearly highs. This is despite a not so great looking performance on the fundamental front. Over the longer term, things have been bad for the investors. Goodwill impairments etc. have put the stock under pressure. Revenues have shown a decline and the gross profits have also fallen. The net income has been erratic, and mostly negative due to the write-offs of goodwill. The debt on books is also high at $4.25 billion, and cash on books is around $268 million. The company has remained in news for results related to trials of its products, and there may be good progress on the innovation front. Even smaller medical device companies like PLC Systems (PLCSF), have built an IPR portfolio around the technologies they possess. PLC has obtained several patents for its product RenalGuard recently. For Boston Scientific, the possibilities on innovation may be the main reason for cautious optimism.
