Tag Archives: cern

Allscripts Lands A Deal; Cerner Faces Security Challenge At MedStar

Allscripts Healthcare Solutions ( MDRX ) stock jumped again Wednesday, with Wall Street “extremely encouraged” by a deal to extend Allscripts’ information tech to University Hospitals in northeast Ohio through 2024. Meanwhile, Allscripts’ No. 1 rival  Cerner ( CERN ) was likely trying to help its Baltimore-based customer MedStar, after an apparent virus infected MedStar’s computers. The hospital chain — said to be the the largest civilian health care organization in the Washington, D.C., area — shut down its entire network “to prevent virus spread,” MedStar tweeted Tuesday. “We have no evidence of compromised information. All facilities remain open.” Wednesday morning, MedStar posted to Facebook: “Thanks to our IT and Cyber teams, our analysis continues to show no patient or associate data have been compromised. All major clinical systems are working toward full restoration.” Departing MedStar nurses, meanwhile, told CBS News that staff was delivering care using paper records. Cerner and MedStar entered into a seven-year IT deal in October 2014. Cerner didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Allscripts stock rose as much as 4.6% in the stock market today  after rising 5.4% on Tuesday, and was up about 2%, above 13, midday Wednesday. Cerner stock was up a fraction midday Wednesday, 30% off a record high touched nearly a year ago. Allscripts Platforms Headed To Five More Hospitals Allscripts didn’t specify the value of the agreement announced Tuesday after the close, but it has already deployed its Sunrise Clinical Manager platform in nine University Hospitals in and around Cleveland. The deal calls for five more Sunrise platforms to be installed in five hospitals recently acquired by UH. The hospital chain will also increase use of Allscripts’ database software, called dbMotion, Allscripts said in its announcement. “Because dbMotion harmonizes information from disparate clinical systems and brings actionable data to the point of care, UH will be positioned to more effectively coordinate care across settings,” Allscripts said. Canaccord Genuity analyst Richard Close reiterated a buy rating on Allscripts stock, with an 18 price target. In a research note, he said he was “extremely encouraged by today’s announcement, which echos our view that MDRX continues to improve its competitive position. “MDRX’s investor meeting held during the (Las Vegas Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) conference (ended March 4) provided confidence that existing customers were satisfied with MDRX and looking to continue and expand their relationship,” Close wrote. University Hospitals’ 18 hospitals include Cleveland’s Case Medical Center, the academic hospital of Case Western Reserve University. “This large extension of (Allscripts’) footprint at University Hospitals is an additional proof statement of Allscripts’ return to competitiveness in the enterprise systems market, as this contract extension was a competitive bid against established competitors in the market,” wrote RBC Capital Markets analyst David Francis in a Wednesday research note. RBC maintains an outperform rating on Allscripts stock, with a 17 price target. MedStar Virus Raises Worries Regarding the MedStar computer virus in Baltimore and Washington, Rachel Ehrenfeld, CEO of the American Center for Democracy and the Economic Warfare Institute, told IBD via email that “while physical security is important, the damage caused by hacking into a hospital IT could cause short- and long-term horrendous damages. “If the system is secure and functioning, it could possibly prevent or limit the scope of a physical attack.” In its October 2014 MedStar announcement, Cerner said it would “develop technologies that align with MedStar’s vision to be the trusted leader in caring for people and advancing health. The new alignment will allow access to all Cerner solutions and services throughout MedStar’s 10 hospitals and 3,000-plus beds, as well as the ambulatory and post-acute network. Cerner will provide MedStar an expanded enterprise Electronic Health Record (EHR) that will provide clinicians seamless access to patient information across the continuum of care.” Image provided by Shutterstock .

Cerner Downgraded For Slowing Sales Growth, Migration To Services

Punished by investors a week ago for guiding Q1 a hair below Wall Street expectations, Cerner was punished again Tuesday by a Goldman Sachs downgrade. Cerner ( CERN ) stock was down more than 3%, near 50, in late-afternoon trading in the stock market today . Last week, shares touched a 21-month low of 49.89. Goldman Sachs analyst Robert Jones downgraded Cerner from buy to neutral and lowered its price target from 62 to 54, with a 3% upside potential. Cerner’s Q4 earnings beat, but its Q1 adjusted EPS guidance of 52 to 54 cents, on sales of $1.15 billion to $1.2 billion, slightly lagged at the midpoint the 54 cents and $1.178 billion consensus estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. The midpoint of guidance would mark a 22% year-over-year gain in EPS and a 27% gain in sales. Cerner also said Q1 new-business bookings would be flat with Q1 2015, at $1.15 billion to $1.25 billion. Last year’s Q1 bookings rose 32% from Q1 2014. Cerner’s is the largest pure-play health care information technology company in the U.S., competing with the  IBM ‘s ( IBM ) Watson Health subsidiary, health care IT software from Oracle ( ORCL ) and others. “As the model increasingly transitions from faster-converting software to slower-converting services, we think it will take strong execution for CERN to maintain 10%/15% revenue/EPS growth,” Jones wrote. “With this backdrop, we think it is more appropriate to benchmark CERN to more mature software and IT outsourcing comps, which trade at 19 (times the next 12-month price/earnings).” Jones said he similarly analyzed Cerner’s smaller rival Allscripts Healthcare Solutions ( MDRX ) and decided to maintain his neutral rating and 13 price target, with 7% upside potential. Allscripts was up a fraction, above 12, Tuesday afternoon. Shares of both IBM and Oracle were down more than 1% Tuesday afternoon.

IBM Stock Jumps For Buying Truven Health At Twice Its 2012 Price

Cerner stock headed down Thursday morning and IBM ‘s jumped after the latter disclosed that it’s buying Truven Health Analytics for $2.6 billion, twice Truven’s sale price four years ago. Like Cerner ( CERN ), the largest pure-play health care software provider in the U.S., smaller Truven provides cloud-based health care data and analytics. Truven counts 8,500 clients, including federal and state agencies, private employers, health plans, hospitals, clinicians and life science companies. Cerner’s primary clientele is large hospitals, though it serves many others, too. IBM stock was up 5.5%, near 133, in morning trading in the stock market today . Following two bad days after guiding Q1 and 2016 below analyst estimates, Cerner was down another 2%, near 52, in morning trading Thursday, 31% off an all-time high set April 13. Smaller rivals Allscripts ( MDRX ) and Athenahealth ( ATHN ) were down 1% and 3%, respectively. Quality Systems ( QSII ) stock was up 1%. Oracle ( ORCL ), which also developers health care IT software, was down a fraction Thursday morning. This is IBM Watson Health’s fourth big health care IT purchase since IBM created that business last April, bringing total employment in the unit to about 5,000. That’s about a fourth of Cerner’s employment, after it acquired Siemens Health last February.  In October, IBM completed the $1 billion acquisition of Merge Healthcare, a clinical image processing and interoperability-systems specialist. Including Truven, IBM will have invested more than $4 billion to build Watson Health, a business that IBM says is “intended to help professionals improve health outcomes, control costs, and advance value-based care solutions.” Encouraged by lawmakers, software developers and mountains of new regulations, health care IT has been moving into a “value-based care” model that measures outcomes — and rewards hospitals and medical practices for good outcomes, while pushing doctors out of paper-based systems. Hospital IT budgets are expected to rise about 8% in 2016, up from 6% to 7% growth in 2015, though Cerner closed 2015 with 30% revenue growth, due largely to its Siemens acquisition. Based in Ann Arbor, Mich., Truven was sold by Thomson Reuters ( TRI ) in June 2012 to Veritas Capital for $1.25 billion. In the press release, Truven CEO Mike Boswood said the merger “will help catapult the industry forward to transform health care and to save and improve lives.”