Analysts at Citigroup bowed to the uncertainty surrounding Boston Scientific’s (NYSE:BSX) immediate financial future, delivering a downgrade to its stock rating as headwinds in its cardiac business are complicated by its recovery from a major cyberattack last month.
Citi’s researchers have lowered their estimates for the company eight times so far this year, most recently on September 9, after Boston Scientific disclosed it may miss previous financial targets following August 25’s cyberattack that caused a global network outage.
That week Boston Scientific also reported that business operations were restored and it was working through its backlog of product orders, and that the incident no longer impacted the enrollment of new patients in its remote monitoring programs for cardiac device implants, including pacemakers and cardioverter-defibrillators.
However, Citi’s analysts said the company’s key growth drivers still face significant pressure during the wait for new products, such as pending physician reimbursement for its Watchman franchise and increased competition for its Farapulse pulsed field ablation systems.
“For years, BSX has been a steady beat-and-raise stock, and while we are confident that it will work through this, the time to resolution is opaque, investor patience has run thin, and we don’t have a handle on the recovery path,” Citi’s analysts wrote.
The firm moved the company’s rating from buy to neutral and lowered the target price from $57 to $50, adding “while we want to believe that this is the final revision, our level of confidence in that is low and, as we have seen, resolving cybersecurity hangover effects can be protracted.”
Citi said its models predict a 7.6% drop in Watchman sales in the second half of this year, with an 8.8% decline in 2027, and that Farapulse will face an uphill climb through early 2028 when new Farawave catheters are expected to debut.
Still, analysts described Boston Scientific’s future pipeline as robust, pointing to the continuing clinical development of its Tivus ultrasound platform in renal denervation, acquired through its $600 million acquisition of SoniVie in May 2025. They also highlighted the company’s re-entry in TAVR, with its $1.5 billion play this year for valve developer MiRus, though that may take two to three years to garner an FDA approval.
In the shorter term, Boston Scientific delivered positive results this year from a pivotal study of its Seismiq coronary intravascular lithotripsy catheter and has submitted it to the agency for review, with a commercial launch estimated for early next year.
BSX chares are down more than 13% over the past month, trading at nearly $44 apiece. The S&P 500 is down nearly 1%.
