UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Downgrades Hansen Medical to Neutral, Lowers PT on Continued Sales Uncertainty

In a report published Thursday, Piper Jaffray analyst Brooks E. West downgraded the rating on Hansen Medical (NASDAQ: HNSN) from Overweight to Neutral, and lowered the price target from $3.00 to $1.50.In the report, West noted, “HNSN continues to face challenges commercializing the Magellan vascular system, with only three systems shipped during Q1, all under the commercial evaluation program (bringing total systems under evaluation to nine, though one is converting to a rent to buy program). With multiple hospitals evaluating the system, but none making purchase commitments, we believe concerns regarding hospital investment returns and the capital purchasing environment will continue weighing heavily on the stock. HNSN is forecasting sales of 14 to 17 Sensei and Magellan systems in 2013, but with no Magellan purchases to date and only one Sensei, we remain concerned company goals will not be reached. We are downgrading HNSN to Neutral from Overweight and lowering our PT to $1.50 from $3 based on 5x EV/CY13E sales (down from 7x EV/CY13E sales), assuming $1.8M net cash and 67.3M shares outstanding. We are lowering our multiple to reflect the challenging capital equipment environment.”Hansen Medical closed on Wednesday at $2.01.