The Cochlear Limited (ASX: COH) share price is trading lower on Monday afternoon.
At the time of writing, the hearing solutions company's shares are down 1.5% to $231.41.
Despite this, the Cochlear share price is still up a sizeable 22% since the start of the year.
Image source: Getty Images
Where next for the Cochlear share price?
Unfortunately for shareholders, one leading broker believes the Cochlear share price could be heading below $200 in the near future.
According to a recent note out of Goldman Sachs, its analysts have retained their sell rating and $197.00 price target on the company's shares.
Based on the current Cochlear share price, this implies potential downside of almost 15% over the next 12 months.
What did the broker say?
Goldman notes that increasing vaccination rates are a positive for trading conditions. However, given how highly elective cochlear implantable surgeries are, the broker has concerns that some potential customers may be hesitant to have procedures done until the COVID-19 pandemic is fully over.
As a result, it feels the operating environment could remain challenging for a while to come.
The broker explained: "Although improving vaccination rates against a challenging comparator should set up COH for a relatively stronger period, implant surgeries are highly elective. Although COH is a high-quality operator, leveraged to a recovery in procedure volumes, it is possible there is some persistent hesitancy amongst a proportion of its target market in DMs (aged 70+), whilst today's update confirms that conditions across several EMs could remain challenging for a period yet (typically 15-20% of revenues)."
In light of this, its analysts believe the Cochlear share price is expensive at the current level and see better options for investors elsewhere.
Goldman concluded: "Whilst there are many reasons to like the stock, at current valuation, we continue to see better value elsewhere across our coverage (COH 29.7x 2022E EV/EBITDA for +3% FY19-22E NPAT CAGR)."
