UPDATE: Bank of America Downgrades C.R. Bard on Multiple Factors

In a report published Tuesday, Bank of America analyst Bob Hopkins downgraded the rating on C.R. Bard (NYSE: BCR) from Buy to Neutral, but reiterated the $150.00 price target.

In the report, Bank of America noted, “We are moving our rating on BCR to Neutral from Buy today for two reasons. First, the stock has only 1% upside to our $150 PO. And second, the one year data presented from MDT's drug eluting balloon trial this weekend was better than we expected and the MDT data set raises the bar for BCR. We are not making any changes to our BCR model or to our assumptions for BCR's drug eluting balloon revenue, but our $150 PO already assumes BCR has a successful drug eluting balloon launch and program.

"We continue to believe that BCR's trial will show separation of the TLR curves over time, but at this point we have no justification for raising our PO. Importantly, If BCR's drug eluting balloon data turns out to be as clean as MDT's, it may suggest upside to our drug eluting balloon market assumptions, which could cause us to reassess our valuation assumptions for BCR.”

C.R. Bard closed on Monday at $144.25.