UPDATE: Bank of America Cuts PO to $24 on VIVUS on Sluggish Qsymia Launch

Bank of America maintained VIVUS

with a Buy rating and lowered the price onjective from $26.00 to $24.00. Bank of America noted, "VVUS reported 4Q Qsymia sales of $2mn vs. our $2.5mn est. and reported higher than expected SG&A, driven by Qsymia launch costs. We expect this expense level could continue, given education requirements and potential for expansion to DTC advertising later in 2013. We raised our SG&A expense est. for 2013 to $190mn (from $150mn). We also trimmed our 2013 US Qsymia sales est. to $60mn (from $70mn) as we expect impact from a positive FDA decision on retail access to now be more weighted in 2H13." VIVUS closed at $12.41 on Monday.