Jefferies Reiterates Buy On Emergency Medical Services (NYSE: EMS)

Jefferies & Co. is reiterating its Buy rating and $63 price target on Emergency Medical Services EMS, after the company announced an acquisition of Milford Anesthesia. In a note sent to clients, Jefferies writes, "The acquisition of Milford Anesthesia likely brings $0.06-$0.07 of incremental earnings to EMS in FY11. This is the third major transaction EMS has completed in anesthesiology, and we think there are more to come as the company builds out its capabilities to serve new and prospective hospital partners. Reiterate Buy/$63PT." Jefferies goes on to say, "We view EMS's acquisition of Milford Anesthesiology as a significant positive catalyst that should revive upward momentum in EMS shares. Milford is an impressive, very high quality practice that has a good footprint in Connecticut and Massachusetts. In addition to generating margins that are higher than EMS's current consolidated margins (we believe Milford currently generates high teens EBITDA margins), we believe that EMS has the opportunity to take advantage of Milford's strong reputation and expand the practice's client footprint further." Shares of EMS gained 29 cents yesterday to close at $50.92, a gain of 0.6%.