Raymond James Downgrades Maximus; Shares down 5%

In a research note released Monday, Raymond James analyst Brian Gesuale Downgraded its Outperform position on Maximus, Inc. MMS to Market Perform. Gesuale primarily Downgraded the company on the basis of the stock already providing promising gains. He included issues such as the Affordable Care Act, and earnings multiples. A key comment, “Our Market Perform rating doesn't reflect any lack of confidence in management or its strategy and, in fact, our feelings are quite the contrary.” Additionally, they are reducing sales and earnings estimates in 2015, “to reflect a lower level of confidence in organic sales growth and margin trajectory.” Gesuale is reducing the full year 2015 earnings per share estimated to 2.28 from 2.37. The firm is also tweaking its revenue estimates to be below the Street at $1.890 billion from $1.928 billion. The firm stated that the cause of a decrease was primarily due to changes in sales and decreases in margins. Shares of Maximus are down five percent Monday, and are down one percent year-to-date.