UPDATE: Citigroup Maintains Buy, Lowers PT to $55 on Covance

Citigroup reiterates its Buy rating on Covance

and lowers its price target to $55 from $61 as the company presents a disappointing outlook ahead of guidance. Citigroup says, "Covance presented at a conference two weeks ahead of its 4Q11 earnings/ 2012 guidance call, offering vague preliminary thoughts on 2012 relative to what was said on its 3Q11 call. Upon speaking with mgmt in more detail, we are lowering our 2012 EPS estimate ~5% to reflect headwinds of an additional 10c in I.T. investments and 5c from foreign currency exchange, but remain bullish on CVD shares as our investment thesis remains intact. With a bias towards the clinical portion of development, global footprint, and superior partnership experience, we continue to expect CVD to benefit disproportionately from macro CRO trends to yield an ETR of 23% to our $55 (-$6) PT." CVD closed at $44.89 per share on Thursday.