NEW YORK, Oct. 23, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- The following is an investment opinion issued by Investrend Research Syndicate:
Healthcare analysts Christopher Sassouni DMD and Scott Davidson, CFA, of Investrend Research affiliate eResearch have initiated coverage on IMI International Medical Innovations Inc. (AMEX:IME) (TSE:IMI) with a "Speculative Buy" and a one year target price of $C7.00
In the report, which is free for a limited period of time on eResearch's website www.eresearch.ca and at http://www.investrendresearch.com, the analysts noted that IMI "strives to develop rapid, non-invasive tests for the early detection and monitoring of life-threatening diseases. To date, IMI has developed a product portfolio that targets the cardiovascular disease and cancer screening markets. We believe that this product portfolio is very well positioned to capitalize on the rapidly growing market for point-of-care, non-invasive disease screening tools."
The analysts added "IMI is the first company to offer a completely non-invasive skin cholesterol test. Not only has the data shown that skin cholesterol readings actually provide more clinically relevant information than most serum cholesterol tests, but because they are non-invasive, they are far more useful and cost-effective as a screening tool." This is the first of a series of early detection tests expected to be rolled out by IMI over the next few years.
Sassouni and Davidson assigned IMI a DCF value and one year target price of $C7.00 based on projections of royalties from its suite of products and also expect that IMI will become profitable by fiscal 2004 with EPS projected at $C0.21 rising to $C0.41 in 2005. With $C8.6 million in cash and no debt, the analysts expect that IMI has over two years of cash at its current burn rate and may be able to avoid additional equity capital raisings altogether.
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