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Cerner, the nation’s large pure-play developer of health care information technology software, late Tuesday did a belly-flop with its Q1 EPS guidance, sending shares sharply lower after hours, though it blew its Q4 earnings out the water. Cerner ( CERN ) forecast first-quarter earnings per share minus items of 52 to 54 cents on sales of $1.15 billion to $1.2 billion, both metrics up 18% from the year-ago quarter at their midpoints. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting 54 cents on $1.178 billion. In either case, the performance would represent slowing growth. In the year-ago Q1, Cerner grew adjusted EPS 22% and sales 27%. The North Kansas City, Mo.-based company said it expects Q1 new-business bookings of $1.15 billion to $1.25 billion, the midpoint flat with Q1 2015, which had risen 32% from Q1 2014. Cerner is facing single-digit hospital IT spending growth of about 8%, up from 6% to 7% in 2015, as clinicians struggle to keep up with software innovation. Federal rule makers are requiring more health care technology updates while changing the game, complicating buying decisions. For its Q4 ended Jan. 2, Cerner said EPS rose 30% to 61 cents per share minus items, while revenue rose 27% to $1.175 billion. Revenue met analyst views, while EPS beat by 4 cents. Cerner stock was down more than 13% in after-hours trading, after the company released its Q4 results. Cerner stock rose 1% to 55.46 in the stock market today , 26% off its all-time high of 75.72 set April 13. Smaller rival Athenahealth ( ATHN ) rose 7.7% Tuesday but was down more than 1% after hours. Rivals Allscsripts ( MDRX ) and Quality Systems ( QSII ) were flat in after-hours trading. Cerner said its Q4 bookings rose 16% to $1.35 billion. “Our fourth-quarter results reflect a solid finish to a record year,” Cerner President Zane Burke said in the earnings release. “In 2015, we added more than double the number of new EHR (electronic health records) clients than any year in our history, including both large health systems and small hospitals. We also continued to advance our cloud-based HealtheIntent platform and had a very strong year of selling our population health solutions both inside and outside our EHR installed base.” For this year, Cerner forecasts EPS ex items of $2.30 to $2.40, on revenue of $4.9 billion to $5.1 billion. Wall Street had modeled, $2.36 EPS minus items on $5.02 billion in revenue. Scalper1 News
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