Bank of America Merrill Lynch Reiterates Buy on Nuvasive

Bank of America Merrill Lynch is out with its report today on Nuvasive NUVA, reiterating Buy. In a note to clients, Bank of America Merrill Lynch writes, "At just 2.4x 2011E EV/sales NUVA trades well below peer valuations primarily because investors are worried about the spine mkt. Yesterday's spine number from MDT gives us some incremental confidence in the near term outlook for the market. But the bulk of our bull thesis on NUVA revolves around our view that the Synthes/JNJ merger will protect NUVA's growth outlook and increase NUVA's strategic value. NUVA does not need to beat to move higher in our view. We are already hearing about sales force churn in just the first few weeks post the merger announcement. We reiterate our Buy rating and $40 target." Shares of NUVA closed Tuesday at $31.00, up 2.72% from Monday's close.