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Biotech / Medical : VISX -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MGV who wrote (1657)	2/23/2000 6:20:00 PM
From: MGV	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1754

Robbie Stephens excerpt: 01:56pm EST 23-Feb-00 Robertson Stephens ** Valuation. Clearly, we expect shares of VISX to be extremely volatile in the short term. However, VISX is currently trading at less than 15x our new 2001 EPS estimate of $1.20. By the end of the year, we look for shares of VISX to trade to at least 25x our 2001 EPS estimate, yielding our $30 price target. We are maintaining our Long-Term Attractive rating on shares of VISX. INVESTMENT IMPACT: Clearly, the lowering of VISX's royalty fee dramatically affects our revenue and EPS projections going forward. As such, we have revised our projections appropriately. We do believe that the end-user market will expand as pricing comes down, which could benefit VISX. INVESTMENT RECOMMENDATION: LTA. In our opinion, VISX is in the best position to capitalize on LVC procedure growth, given the company's broad regulatory approval, strong customer service organization, and established track record. VISX has a broad array of approvals by the FDA for all major vision disorders, including myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism. We believe that VISX's proven track record and its large customer support organization will help the company maintain its dominant market position in LVC. Also, VISX has significant leverage to the bottom line and has unusual capacity to manage expenses appropriate to its top line performance. The outcome of the PTO's reexamination of the '388 should also bear significantly on the strength of VISX's negotiating position with potential licensees of its technology, along with associated market share dynamics going forward.