UPDATE: Goldman Sachs Downgrades Thoratec Accounting For More Challenged Outer Year Growth

Goldman Sachs published a research report on

on Sunday, downgrading the company's stock rating to neutral and reducing the price target from $42 to $37. In the report, analyst David H. Roman noted that, "...we no longer see significant upside potential to Street numbers. Going forward, we see the following factors influencing the outlook: (1) impact from new competition (hard to know when trialing and share shift will stabilize); (2) market expansion in the US to reaccelerate utilization trends (we, the company, and consensus are all counting on this materializing); (3) success in building the market in Japan (this could be a big opportunity over time); (4) new clinical data and product iterations (will come from both major market participants). Overall, we see upside/downside as balanced." Thoratec closed Friday at $32.60 and is currently trading down 1.90% since pre-market open hours.