Company

Bank

Analyst

Coverage

Opinion

Wk chg

7/6 cls

Affymetrix Inc. (NASDAQ:AFFX)

Goldman Sachs

Isaac Ro

Downgrade

Sell (from neutral)

-3%

$4.54

Ro also lowered his target to $4 from $4.30 on "mounting headwinds" for Affymetrix's core franchise in academic and European end markets and on its recent acquisition of eBiosciences Inc. Ro said Affymetrix raised $190M in debt to finance the acquisition, leaving limited balance sheet flexibility to reinvest at "levels sufficient" to grow the company above his and Street expectations. He noted about 70% of the company's revenues are tied to research end markets, and he does not see a near term resolution for NIH's funding outlook. Ro is also concerned over increasing obsolescence and strong competition for the company's core microarray business.

Life Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:LIFE)

Goldman Sachs

Isaac Ro

Downgrade

Sell (from neutral)

-6%

$42.47

Ro also lowered his target to $38 from $47 on concerns of a slowdown in academic research spending. He noted the Ion Torrent sequencing technology will drive part of the tool supplier's organic growth over the next few years, but is "dilutive to GMs [gross margins] and a negative contributor to EBIT at least through the 2014 period." The Ion Torrent technology uses semiconductor technology and simple chemistry to sequence DNA.