Cerner Gets Boost From Analysts After Earnings Beat, Asset-Sale Plan

Cerner  (CERN) - Get Report shares advanced after the health-care-IT company was the subject of numerous bullish notes following its fourth-quarter earnings beat.

Also bolstering the North Kansas City, Mo., company's stock was news that it was selling some assets in Germany and Spain to a German health-care-software company.

CompuGroup Medical SE is set to buy the assets for about $248.9 million, a deal the companies expect to close in the third quarter.

The assets include Medico and Soarian Integrated Care, two health information systems for public hospitals in Germany; Selene, a leading HIS for public hospitals in Spain; and Soarian Health Archive, a system for digitizing and strong health information.

"The products from this acquisition are an excellent fit with our current portfolio," CompuGroup Medical CEO Frank Gothardt said in a statement.

Analysts at Baird raised their price target on Cerner to $85 a share from $72. Canaccord Genuity raised its price target to $81 from $80 and analysts at CFRA raised their price target to $76 from $72.

After the closing bell Tuesday, Cerner reported adjusted fourth-quarter earnings of 75 cents a share on revenue of $1.44 billion. Analysts were expecting the company to report 74 cents on revenue of $1.4 billion.

“We made meaningful progress on driving value for our clients, delivering operating efficiencies, simplifying our business, and refining our growth strategy. These efforts are ongoing, and I believe they position us for long-term profitable growth,” said CEO Brent Shafer. 

At last check Cerner shares were up 6.7% at $79.17. They've traded on Wednesday up as much as 9% at a 52-week high of $80.90.