UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Downgrades AtriCure from Overweight to Neutral

Piper Jaffray downgraded AtriCure (NASDAQ: ATRC) from an Overweight rating to a Neutral rating and lowered its price target from $12 to $6.

Piper Jaffray commented, “While the business at AtriCure performed well during Q2 with revenues of $18.3M (+8.9%, 10.5%cc) exceeding consensus expectations of $18.0M, the surprise and apparently sudden resignation of CEO David Drachman after 10 years at the company was the clear headliner. Considering ATRC was arguably at the brink of a positive inflection point in the company's history, Drachman's departure following the CFO departure last quarter gives us pause. Given the executive departures, suspension of guidance and uncertainty around the near-term direction of the company we downgrade ATRC shares to Neutral and lower our PT to $6 (1.5x EV/CY13E sales of $76M).”

AtriCure closed at $8.10 on Thursday.