Leerink Partners downgraded Globus Medical (NYSE: GMED) from Outperform to Market Perform with a price target of $27.00 (from $29.00).

Analyst Richard Newitter commented, "We appreciate that GMED's above avg. EBITDA margin profile has held up despite decelerating 1H16 rev. growth, and acknowledge a better 2017 set-up as comps get easier and key investment initiatives like robotics & trauma gradually see increased payoff. But, GMED's organic growth has now slowed to its lowest level since being public (+3%), and another qtr of below-norm rep hiring in 2Q portends a slower org. growth rebound--off of a lower base--into 2H16/2017. While the acquisition of Alphatec's int'l spine business (announced today) does offer an expanded OUS footprint for GMED's still-challenged OUS spine segment, in our view it also introduces some increased execution risk as spine integrations do not always go as planned. We'd be inclined to get more constructive pending greater visibility, assuming: (1) organic rev. growth acceleration is on track to materialize faster or more meaningfully than projected, (2) Alphatec spine (ATEC) dissynergies do not come in worse than mgmt. has forecast, and/or (3) robotics/trauma initiatives contribute sooner/more significantly than we've modeled in 2017. Our PT goes to $27 vs. $29 as we now assume a lower multiple to account for increased execution risk and slower organic rev. growth."

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Shares of Globus Medical closed at $26.43 yesterday.