Abiomed rises as analyst looks to conference

Analyst says Abiomed's presentations at medical conference could raise Impella revenue

• On 1:36 pm EDT, Wednesday September 16, 2009

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of Abiomed Inc. rose Wednesday after an analyst raised his rating on the stock, saying the heart device maker's sales could get a boost from presentations at a medical conference next week.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Duane Nash upgraded Abiomed shares to "Neutral" from "Underperform." He said the company will make two presentations about its Impella Cardiac Assist Device system at the meeting, detailing use of the newest version of the system, and comparing it to an older system.

The company needs data to persuade more surgeons to use the Impella 2.5 system, Nash said, but results from a clinical trial are a few years away. He believes the reports at the Transcatheter Therapeutics Meeting in San Francisco could help. The conference is scheduled for Sept. 21 to Sept. 25.

He said the Danvers, Mass., company will make a few other presentations as well.

In morning trading, Abiomed shares advanced 52 cents, or 6.3 percent, to $8.80. Nash holds a price target of $12 per share on Abiomed.

The Impella system allows surgeons to implant a device that keeps a patient's blood flowing during and after surgery to treat heart failure. Nash said one of the presentations will compare Impella to intra-aortic balloon pumps, which are placed in the aorta to help the heart pump blood during surgeries. The second presentation involves data from more than 100 patients who had operations using the system.

Abiomed said Impella 2.5 was used on 341 patients in the U.S. during the fiscal first quarter.

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