NEW YORK – Investment bank Evercore ISI on Tuesday downgraded PerkinElmer's shares to an In Line rating from a prior Outperform rating and decreased the price target for the firm's stock to $150 per share from $175 per share.
In a note to investors, Evercore analyst Vijay Kumar said that while PerkinElmer's current management has "done a phenomenal job of transforming the asset into a higher growth/higher consumable story," the valuation gap that existed when the bank originally upgraded the company's shares in 2019 to Outperform has closed. PerkinElmer's stock now matches Evercore's expectations, "causing us to take a fresh look amidst macro uncertainties."
Kumar also wrote that while the company remains on track to grow in the high single digits, organic growth and earnings per share are expected to decline in 2023 due to headwinds to COVID-19 testing, as well as currency effects and macro uncertainties.
In Tuesday trading on the Nasdaq, PerkinElmer's shares closed up a fraction of a percent at $144.56.