UPDATE: Bank of America Reduces PO to $43 on LifePoint Hospitals Post Weak Quarter

Bank of America reiterated its Neutral rating on LifePoint Hospitals

and reduced its price objective from $46 to $43. Bank of America commented, "Q3 was disappointing on a number of fronts and even adjusting for all the items LPNT claims as 1x, normalized EBITDA was 11% below consensus, with guidance implying a similar reduction in Q4. … With no formal guidance from the company yet, we estimate 2013 EBITDA could be $572-$602m, up 7-11% y/y. After analyzing the puts and takes, we feel comfortable above the midpoint of that range, but it still marks a reduction vs. our prior est of $636m and our visibility in LPNT's operations is clearly lower after this quarter. We are reducing our 2012/13/14 EPS ests to $3.14/$3.51/$4.42 from $3.59/$3.77/$4.54 and cutting our PO to $43 from $46." LifePoint Hospitals closed at $36,16 on Friday.