Wedbush Morgan Upgrades NBTY (NTY) to Buy; Raises Price Target & Estimates

June 5, 2009 9:12 AM EDT

Wedbush Morgan upgrades NBTY (NYSE: NTY) from Hold to Buy. Price target increased from $24 to $30.

Wedbush analyst says, "Raising opinion to BUY from HOLD, due to increased earnings visibility from: i) expected gross margin rebound from stabilizing raw material costs, ii) realization of cost savings from Leiner integration, and iii) favorable recent currency fluctuations...Raising estimates due to the aforementioned reasons. In addition to favorable currency movements, we expect NBTY’s core business to also generate solid momentum, driven by expanded shelf space in retailers such as Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Costco (Nasdaq: COST) as well as robust high single-digit industry growth in the mass market nutritional supplement market, a segment of the industry that has weathered the economic storm well as consumers trade down to value-priced products. Thus, we are raising our revenue forecasts for FY09 to $2.472 billion from $2.452 billion, and for FY10 to $2.534 billion from $2.473 billion. We are also raising our FY10 EPS forecast to $2.41 from $2.35, to reflect moderating raw material prices as well as falling advertising rates."

To see more analyst ratings on NTY Click Here.

NBTY, Inc. (NBTY) is a vertically integrated manufacturer, marketer and retailer of a line of nutritional supplements in the United States and throughout the world.

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