Medical-Devices Sector Could Face Tougher Regulatory Pathway

Analysts Brooke E. West and John D. Crowther at Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC have maintained an Accumulate rating for St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE: STJ). Analysts have also maintained the price target of $41 for St. Jude Medical, Inc.

The management at St. Jude has reiterated its guidance of 7%-11% growth in sales, and 12%-14% growth in EPS in 2010. According to analysts, this would require the company to have a growth at or above market rates for all business segments.

Analysts expect the company to maintain share in its four markets. However, analysts believe that the company will struggle to achieve even the low-end of its sales guidance range for 2010 as it is heavily weighted towards significant growth in the back half of the year, a reacceleration of the US CRM business, and share gains in A-Fib.

See the rest of the story here.

Theflyonthewall.com is Wall Street's specialist in breaking equity news. Veteran traders build a proprietary feed of news that's faster and more relevant than any other source. Try us for free and discover for yourself.

Visit StreetInsider.com at http://www.streetinsider.com/news.php?st=p&id=5315776 for the full story.

See the rest of the story here.

Theflyonthewall.com is Wall Street's specialist in breaking equity news. Veteran traders build a proprietary feed of news that's faster and more relevant than any other source. Try us for free and discover for yourself.

Accuray (ARAY, news: 6.86 +0.26 +3.94%, cap: 393.8M, 1yr target: 6.40) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Jefferies… Aetna (AET, news: 29.53 -0.08 -0.27%, cap: 12.801B, 1yr target: 34.90) upgraded to Hold from Sell at Collins Stewart… Airgas (ARG, news: 60.50 -0.46 -0.75%, cap: 4.969B, 1yr target: 54.91) downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at RW Baird… Alumina Limited [...]

BloggingStocks: Analyst upgrades: Jefferies upgraded CME Group (CME) to Buy from Hold and has a $330 target on the stock. The firm believes increased regulatory concerns have created a buying opportunity and notes that CME Group's fundamentals are ... Read more

On Thursday, St. Jude Medical, Inc. (STJ: sentiment, chart, options) announced it would launch its Fortify line of implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) in the U.S. in 2010, and Japan in 2011...(Read More)

The global medical devices industry is fairly large, with annual worldwide sales in excess of $200 billion. The U.S. accounts for approximately 41% of this market. The industry is divided into different categories such as Cardiology, Oncology, Neuro, Orthopedic, Aesthetic Devices, Healthcare IT, etc. We recommend companies providing life-sustaining products to investors in the medical devices [...]

(MDRX) Medical Devices Stock Review – Feburary 2010 – Industry Outlook

St. Jude Medical (STJ) took a nasty beating last month as their earnings outlook and several analyst downgrades. Today we are seeing the first upgrade – all the way to a buy. This is creating a short-squeeze as it passes above resistance and creates a fill-the-gap scenario. October downgrades: Oct 22, 2009 10:11 AM FTN Equity [...] Related posts:

1. Potash (POT) Seeing Unrelenting Price Squeeze
2. T. Rowe Price – How Low Does it Go?
3. Why We are Short Exxon

Tom Dorsey and Tammy DeRosier Update You on the New York Stock Exchange Bullish Percent

General Motors, IMPART Media Group, SonicWALL, Alloy, Inc, RadioShack, Seacoast Banking Corp

Yahoo, eBay, Centene Corp, EMAK Worldwide, Alloy, Inc, Rentech, Inc, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Magic Software Enterprises

McDonalds, Google, Walt Disney Co, RadioShack, Tom Online, LESCO, LaBranche Co