CVRx price target lowered to $15 from $23 at Craig-Hallum

Craig-Hallum lowered the firm’s price target on CVRx to $15 from $23 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services yesterday came out with the annual proposed rule changes for the 2025 hospital outpatient prospective payment system that included a change to Barostim reimbursement which would decrease overall reimbursement for providers to $31,000 in 2025 from $45,000 in 2024 for outpatient treated Barostim patients, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm changed its model to assume these proposed changes go into effect. Craig-Hallum says that while CVRx showed last year it can effectively plead its case for a higher payment code for Barostim, the firm does not believe expectations should be positioned for this as the base case.