NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Raymond James today downgraded Genomic Health to Market Perform from Outperform, noting that the company's stock has essentially reached its prior price target with limited catalysts for positive near-term estimate revisions.
In a note to investors, analyst Nicholas Jansen said 2017 is shaking out to be more of a "transition" year than an "upside to numbers" year, with growth accelerants either already encapsulated by the price target or more likely to influence Genomic Health's revenues in 2018.
Although Genomic Health continues to expect an expansion of Medicare coverage for its prostate cancer test before the end of the first half of this year, Jansen said that this is already included in its guidance, meaning there is little upside "given that each passing day limits the quarterly contribution."
Meanwhile, other drivers expected later this year — including new data from the TAILORx trial on intermediate risk-score patients, and reimbursement for testing in Germany — are not likely to actually begin to affect Genomic Health's business until 2018.
"The UK and France are certainly contributing … but meaningful German reimbursement will need the TAILORx intermediate risk data and is thus a 2018 event in all likelihood," Jansen wrote.
However, he made clear that the downgrade is not a negative call on Genomic Health's upcoming Q1 earnings release.
Genomic Health's shares fell almost 3 percent to $32.07 in Wednesday morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.