SunTrust analyst Bruce Nudell initiated Integra LifeSciences with a Buy rating and a price target of $56, saying the "temporary" headwinds experienced by the company in Q3 and the subsequent pullback in its stock price present a "buying opportunity". The analyst cites the company's progress in integrating its "Codman acquisition, expanding its geographic footprint, augmenting and optimizing its distribution channels and introducing new products that should drive 5.5% organic growth over the 2018-22 timeframe."

BTIG notes that seven Medicare Administrative Contractors, or MACs - CGS, WPS, NGS, Palmetto, Novitas, First Coast, and Noridian - this morning published new proposed local coverage determinations, or LCDs, regarding the coverage of skin substitutes grafts and cellular and tissue based products for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers, or DFUs, and venous leg ulcers, or VLUs. This marks "the second attempt in the past 12 months where MACs have proposed an LCD that would drastically shake up the advanced wound care market," says the analyst, who highlights that the proposed LCD includes non-coverage products from Integra Lifesciences (IART), Organogenesis (ORGO), Smith & Nephew (SNN), MiMedx (MDXG), Anika Therapeutics (ANIK) and numerous smaller, private wound care companies. The firm adds that it thinks Integra and Organogenesis both have meaningful exposure to the LCDs based on their product portfolio and the revenue mix within their Advanced Wound Care businesses.