Baird 'proactively' cuts PT on Syneos after bookings weakness

Syneos Health

16/09/2022 11:26

** Brokerage Baird cuts PT on Syneos Health Inc  SYNH.O  to
$80 from $89 after the contract researcher cautioned of soft Q3
bookings by its clients on Tuesday  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N30K33O
    ** But analyst Eric Coldwell says the PT cut is "proactive"
and maintains "outperform" rating on the stock
    ** "We thought hard about downgrading, but within a year we
expect we'd be kicking ourselves for punting at one of the
lowest CRO multiples seen in the last decade," says Coldwell 
    ** SYNH trading at a 12-month forward P/E of 9.98 vs a
5-year average historic P/E ratio of 45.94
    ** Shares of contract research organizations (CROs) have
been under pressure this year over concerns that cash crunches
among small biotech companies will impact revenue at CROs that
conduct research on their behalf 
    ** Seven of 13 analysts rate SYNH "buy" or higher while 6
rate it "hold; median PT is $76.50 - Refinitiv data
    ** SYNH down ~49% YTD vs a 9.7% fall in the S&P 500
healthcare index  .SPXHC  in the same period 

 (Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru)
 ((Manas.Mishra@thomsonreuters.com;
www.twitter.com/Manaswrites15;))