Lantheus falls on up to $1 billion acquisition

** Shares of medical diagnostics co Lantheus Holdings LNTH fall 7.4% to $91.03

** LNTH says it will buy Evergreen Theragnostics to expand its oncology radiopharmaceutical pipeline with multiple experimental cancer treatments

** Deal consists of an upfront payment of $250 mln and up to $752.5 mln in milestone payments to Evergreen

** JonesTrading analyst Justin Walsh says current weakness in LNTH is due to concerns about the co deploying cash on acquisitions that are expected to add to EPS only ~18 months post-close; he believes this market reaction is "wholly unwarranted"

** Deal expected to close in H2 2025

** 12 of 13 brokerages rate the stock "buy" or higher and 1 "hold"; their median PT is $135 - LSEG

** LNTH gained 41.8% in 2024