Jefco's Physician Experts Anticipate Vast Market For Accuray's CyberKnife

Jefferies is out positive on Accuray (ARAY) again, saying they recently hosted a conference call for institutional investors with two physician experts experienced in stereotactic radiosurgery. The firm was encouraged by the physicians' expectations for substantial growth of the SRS market and views that the CyberKnife is the most advanced system.

Jefco's physician experts believe that the potential market for SRS is vast. Dr. Brenner stated that every radiation oncology department or center would eventually need to purchase an SRS system in order to deliver the full compliment of radiation treatment options to their patients.

Both Jefco's physician experts believe that the CyberKnife is technologically superior to all of the competing radiation therapy platforms, including Varian's (VAR) Trilogy, BrainLab's Novalis, Elekta's Synergy and Axesse, and TomoTherapy's (TTPY) Hi-Art Systems. They would be buyers of ARAY at current levels and believe the stock is poised to trade higher on strong FY1Q revenue growth, an upbeat analyst day at ASTRO, an expanding backlog, and accelerating CyberKnife unit placements. Maintains Buy and $29 tgt.

Notablecalls: I highlighted ARAY a couple of weeks ago following a positive call from Jefco. Worked out just fine. I continue to expect the stock to see continued interest over the next weeks or months. As a funny sidenote, CIBC's Amit Hazan was pretty ticked off on Oct 5 after he wasn't invited to ARAY's analyst event. In his note to clients, the analyst expressed his disappointment saying ARAY held its "analyst day" at an undisclosed location with only select analysts invited (despite their attempts, they were not allowed to attend). According to Hazan, their action really underscores this management's credibility issues. CIBC has a Sell on ARAY.

NOTE TO ARAY MANAGEMENT: Play nicely, let Amit Hazan attend your events. I don't think investors appreciate this kind of behaviour.

ARAY 6-mo chart: