12:00 PM EDT, 04/30/2024 (MT Newswires) -- CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows:

We keep our 12-month target price at $86, 17.8x our 2025 EPS forecast, a discount to peers due to flattening sales and higher debt. We widen our 2024 EPS forecast by $0.02 to $4.28 and 2025's by $0.04 to $4.84. Q1 EPS of $0.90 vs. $0.85, missed the consensus estimate narrowly, by a cent per share. Sales in the quarter of $4.7B were 3% shy of consensus, with organic Y/Y revenue growth flat, due to a soft quarter in the ultrasound and patient care solutions businesses, offset by growth in the pharmaceutical diagnostics (PD) business. This marks a strong deceleration from the 12% organic sales growth in Q1 last year, though we note that quarter had Y/Y tailwinds from easing supply chain conditions and strong China stimulus sales. Despite the lackluster quarter, we think sales growth may improve throughout the year driven by catalysts such as new product launches in the ultrasound business, growth in imaging due to the healthy backlog and large order funnel, and growth in PD due to strong procedure trends.