The health information technology market is still booming, with Cerner Corp., the Kansas City, Mo.-based developer of electronic health records, cashing in on the bounty.
Cerner reported higher revenue, earnings, earnings per share and record bookings for the third quarter of 2015 than in the same quarter last year. Yet the market took the news badly. Cerner shares closed at $66.09, off 7 cents on the day. Then, when its earnings report was released, its shares began falling further in after-hours trading. At deadline, they were trading about $59.94, off 9.3% from the day's close.
Analysts attributed the declines to Cerner missing its third-quarter revenue estimates.
Third-quarter revenue rose to more than 1.1 billion, up from $840.1 million for the period a year ago, a 34% gain. Net income was for the third quarter rose to $147.3 million from $129 million for the third quarter in 2014, a 14% jump.
Earnings per share for the third quarter climbed to 42 cents, up from 37 cents for the quarter last year.
Cerner CEO Neal Patterson said in a news release that “the highlight of our results in the third quarter was our strong bookings, which again included a record number of new clients joining Cerner."
"We have signed more new clients in the first three quarters of 2015 than any full year in our history, and I attribute this success to our strong competitive position in an active marketplace,” he said.
