Wells Fargo analyst David Maris says last night's regulatory filing by Valeant Pharmaceuticals detailing a "series of multi-million dollar retention bonuses to keep several executives" is a cause for concern. These same executives held managerial roles as the company "faced major business, regulatory, legal, and accounting issues," Maris tells investors in a research note. He believes the bonuses, at a time when Valeant faces public and government scrutiny for pricing practices, opens the company up to criticism. As an example, Maris noted that Valeant's CFO, who he says in the past year has lowered guidance substantially, disclosed material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting and became subject to an SEC investigation, will receive, in addition to his existing bonus and salary, a $1M cash retention bonus and a $2.8M special equity award for staying with the company for the rest of 2016. After reviewing recent prescription and spending trends, Maris lowered his estimates for Valeant and dropped his price target range for the shares to $27-$31 from $30-$31. The analyst keeps an Underperform rating on the name. Valeant closed the trading day up 7%, or $2.02, to $29.07.