Wells Fargo Downgrades Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPDI) to Market Perform; Going Private

Wells Fargo downgraded Pharmaceutical Product Development (NASDAQ: PPDI) from Outperform to Market Perform with a price target range of $31-$33.25 (from $31-33).

Wells analyst says, "We are downgrading PPDI based on today's announcement that PPDI has agreed to be taken private and our belief that additional bidders are unlikely. We are raising the high end of our valuation range to $33.25 from $33.00 to incorporate the proposed take-out price. The Carlyle Group and Hellman & Friedman have agreed to pay $33.25 per share, a total equity value of $3.9 billion. PPDI has slightly under $400 million of cash on its balance sheet and no debt, making the enterprise value of the deal about $3.5 billion, which represents 12x TTM EBITDA. The transaction has committed financing and is expected to close in Q4 2011."

For more ratings news on Pharmaceutical Product Development click here and for the rating history of Pharmaceutical Product Development click here.

Shares of Pharmaceutical Product Development closed at $32.24 yesterday.

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