GE HealthCare Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:GEHC) was started with a Buy rating and $82 price target at Citi on Tuesday following its spin-off from General Electric (NYSE:GE) on January 4, 2023.
Analysts told investors in a note that the company is new to investors but not to hospitals and that it is "rare to initiate coverage of a 125-year-old IPO" with a market cap of ~$30 billion.
"While GE retained a 19.9% stake in GEHC's common stock at the time of the spin, its subsequent disposal of 29M shares thereby reduced its ownership to 13.5%," the analysts explained. "In its current formation, GE Healthcare is a leading global provider of medical technologies and solutions."
They added that it is bolstered by a vast installed base of 4 million pieces of equipment across its segments: Imaging, Ultrasound, Patient Care Solutions and Pharmaceutical Diagnostics.
"Like others that have spun out of larger organizations, GE Healthcare will face the crawl, walk, run process of standing up as its own entity," added the analysts. However, they acknowledged that GEHC's "products are essential, and pervasive, throughout the healthcare continuum."