UPDATE: Bank Of America Reiterates On AbbVie On Move To Standalone Valuation

In a report published Friday, Bank of America analyst Colin Bristow reiterated a Buy rating on

, but lowered the price target from $65.00 to $61.00. In the report, Bank of America noted, “Following ABBV's statement on 10/15/14 communicating its Board's decision to withdraw its recommendation for the Shire deal, we are moving to a standalone valuation (ie removing NPV of deal synergies) on the basis that we expect the deal to be voted down by shareholders (timing of vote not disclosed). While we acknowledge there is significant overlap in the shareholder base of ABBV/Shire, potentially incentivizing deal progression, we expect the majority vote to echo the Board's opinion. In addition to removing the NPV of the deal synergies, we also tweaked up our ABT-199 peak sales estimate to $1.25bn (from $750mn). The net effect of these changes was a decrease in our DCF-based price objective to $61/share, from $65 (approx. $5 decrease due to removal of deal synergies, $1 increase due to ABT-199). We reiterate our Buy rating and view any weakness in the stock as an enhanced buying opportunity.” AbbVie Inc closed on Thursday at $52.90.