Citi downgrades Boston Scientific on uncertain recovery path

Investing.com -- Citi has downgraded Boston Scientific to Neutral from Buy, citing an uncertain recovery path after a string of setbacks this year.

Analyst Joanne Wuensch cut her price target for the stock to $50 from $57, saying the medical device maker's fortunes have "shifted in a big way" in 2026.

She pointed to a more mature and competitive U.S. market for pulsed field ablation, a stagnating left atrial appendage closure market, hiccups in urology, and a cybersecurity attack.

Wuensch said Citi has lowered its estimates eight times this year, most recently on Sept. 9, and while she would like to believe that is the last revision, her confidence is low given that cybersecurity effects can be protracted.

Boston Scientific has long been a steady "beat-and-raise" stock, she said, but "the time to resolution is opaque, investor patience has run thin, and we don't have a handle on the recovery path."

The analyst said key growth drivers remain under pressure while investors wait for new products. For its Watchman device, she flagged proposed new guidelines and pending reimbursement changes that could weigh on uptake, with management guiding the closure market to decline in the second half and into 2027, and some share loss expected as Abbott launches its next-generation Amulet device.

In electrophysiology, Wuensch said pulsed field ablation competition should remain a headwind until new catheters launch from the second half of 2027, modeling Farapulse-related sales down 5.3% in the second half and flat in 2027.

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