NORTH KANSAS CITY (dpa-AFX) - Shares of Cerner Corp. (CERN) rose over five percent in extended hours on Tuesday, after the company reported a higher fourth-quarter profit driven mainly by a more-than-anticipated double-digit revenue growth. Both earnings and revenues for the quarter were ahead of Street expectations. Cerner also detailed its outlook for the first quarter and full year with earnings for both periods expected in line with estimates.
Kansas City, Missouri-based Cerner's net income for the fourth quarter improved to $91.2 million or $0.52 per share from $70.6 million or $0.41 per share last year.
Adjusted earnings, which exclude share based compensation expense, rose to $96.2 million or $0.55 per share from $75.0 million or $0.44 per share a year ago. On average, 20 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.53 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.
Cerner, which competes with Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Epic Systems, GE Healthcare Technologies, said revenues for the quarter grew 23 percent to $615.6 million, topping analysts' estimate of $587.28 million.
Fourth-quarter bookings rose 44 percent to $899.0 million from last year. Total revenue backlog for the quarter was up 24 percent to $6.11 billion.
Chief Executive Neal Patterson said, 'We expect to continue to see a strong market for health care IT solutions and services for years to come as the health care industry undergoes a transition from paper to digital records and shifts from volume-based payment programs to programs based on measurements of quality and outcomes.'
Cerner, like other healthcare information technology companies, expect to benefit from federal government spending that promotes hospitals and other health professionals to make their records in digital format.
Looking forward to the first quarter, the healthcare information technology company expects adjusted earnings in a range of $0.48 to $0.50 per share and revenues of $565 million to $585 million. Analysts currently expect earnings of $0.49 per share on revenues of $565.19 million for the quarter
For the full year 2012, Cerner expects adjusted earnings in a range of $2.20 to $2.30 per share and revenues of $2.425 billion to $2.5 billion. Analysts currently expect earnings of $2.25 per share on revenues of $2.46 billion for the full year.
CERN closed Tuesday's trading on the Nasdaq at $62.57, down $0.21 or 0.33%. In after hours, the stock however, gained $3.43 or 5.48%.
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