UPDATE: Citigroup Reiterates Sell Rating, Lowers PT for St. Jude Medical

In a company update published earlier today, Citigroup Inc. reiterated its Sell rating for St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE: STJ) and slightly lowered its price target from $37.00 to $36.00.

Citigroup said it made its decisions “reflective of the company's current valuation combined with difficult fundamentals facing the company within the ICD and pacemaker markets which represent 70% of sales. Competitive product issues by Boston Scientific and Medtronic enabled St. Jude to capture share in the CRM market including over 900bp of global ICD market share since 2005. This trend has started to reverse with Medtronic now taking share in pacemakers and concerns about the Riata/Durata ICD lead systems likely to start pressuring market share. In addition, both the pacemaker and ICD markets are in a state of decline that is expected to continue in 2012. With 60% of the company struggling, we believe Street estimates for 2012 and beyond are overly aggressive and are well above our forecasts.”

St. Jude Medical, Inc. closed yesterday at $38.88.