Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE:BSX) garnered two upgrades and one downgrade from analysts this week, creating a roller-coaster effect in stock prices for the medical device giant.
The company’s stock has been closing at higher and higher values all week, but slid nearly 4 percent in midday trading Friday after an analyst at wealth management service UBS downgraded the stock from buy to neutral.
Wall Street analyst Rajeev Jashnani said the stock isn’t likely to trade higher until BSX can report sustained revenue.
“We believe Boston Scientific could still remain range-bound until sustainable revenue growth improves, perhaps not occurring until `13-’14,” he wrote.
Jashnani added that growth in drug-eluting stents is healthy, but prices could drop hard thanks to competition between companies offering similar types of devices.
Moody’s bumped the Natick, Mass.-based company’s rating from stable to positive just yesterday, citing austerity measures under CEO J. Raymond Elliott and the recent news that one of the company’s main competitors in the stent market, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) subsidiary Cordis Corp., is dropping the business by the end of the year.
An analyst at Stifel Nicolaus similarly bumped the company from hold to buy on Wednesday.
BSX stock was trading around $6.80 in mid-day trading on Friday June 24, nearly 4 percent lower than yesterday’s close at $7.09.
