UPDATE: JMP Securities Initiates Coverage on Quidel Awaiting Further Visibility

In a report published Wednesday, JMP Securities analyst J.T. Haresco initiated coverage on

with a Market Perform rating. In the report, JMP Securities noted, “We are initiating coverage of Quidel at Market Perform. The company has laid out a potentially transformative game plan for the next two years to grow revenue by an incremental $100M (or approximately $250M total) by 2015. While we laud the effort, the reliance on a single product to drive 65% of incremental revenue growth seems daunting to us. Quidel (QDEL) currently trades at 4.8x EV/FY14 consensus revenue, in line with its peers in the Diagnostics sector. We believe that the multiple is warranted given that we expect the company to have a similar rate of revenue growth relative to peers and that shares are fairly valued currently. We are opting to remain on the sidelines until we have further visibility into the progress the company is making on its strategic initiatives.” Quidel closed on Tuesday at $26.02.