UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Downgrades Pacira Pharmaceuticals Following 2Q13 Net Loss

In a report published Wednesday, Piper Jaffray analyst David Amsellem downgraded Pacira Pharmaceuticals PCRX from Overweight to Neutral, but raised the price target from $35.00 to $38.00.

In the report, Piper Jaffray noted, “Earlier today, Pacira reported a 2Q13 net loss per share of ($0.42), slightly narrower than the Street estimate of ($0.43). Exparel 2Q13 sales of $15.2M beat our estimate of $14M, with PCRX citing continued growth in hospital customer adds. We continue to believe there is ample visibility on continued adoption of Exparel. That said, given the strong outperformance for the shares year-to-date, we believe upside through 2H13 is limited, particularly in the context of lofty long-term expectations for Exparel that in our view are starting to be reflected in the current valuation (2015 P/E and EV/sales of 13x and near 4.5x, respectively). As such, we are downgrading PCRX to Neutral from Overweight, though we are slightly raising our price target to $38 from $35 (mainly reflecting a rolling forward of the discount period used in our PT calculation).”

Pacira Pharmaceuticals closed on Tuesday at $36.56.