Sunday, February 9, 2014

Seeking Alpha: Great Growth Doesn't Come Cheap With Cepheid

Investors looking for good plays in the diagnostics space have some difficult choices to make. High-quality companies like Becton Dickinson (BDX) or Trinity (TRIB) don't come all that cheap, while others like LipoScience (LPDX) have some serious issues to address. Cepheid (CPHD) is definitely in that former camp, as the company's GeneXpert system is an excellent automated molecular diagnostics platform that has garnered leading share in hospital-acquired infections and continues to leverage new test launches.

Cepheid is expensive by almost any metric, but med-tech investors are willing to pay for growth and Cepheid's strong share and differentiated platform could yet attract strategic buyers. These shares are definitely vulnerable to any operational stumble, not to mention a sudden shift in market sentiment regarding the appropriate premium for growth, but I wouldn't step in front of them (to short), nor would I rush to sell if I owned them.

Read more here:
Great Growth Doesn't Come Cheap With Cepheid

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