Analyst Target Update & Review on athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATHN)

athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATHN) currently has an Average Broker Rating of 2.41. This number is based on the 22 sell-side firms polled by Zacks. The ABR rank within the industry stands at 49.   

Analysts on a consensus basis are expecting that the stock will reach $150.45 within the year.  The ABR is provided by Zacks which simplfies analyst ratings into an integer based number. They use a one to five scale where they translate brokerage firm Buy/Sell/Hold recommendations into an average broker rating. A low number in the 1-2 range typically indicates a Buy, 3 represents a Hold and 4-5 represents a consensus Sell rating. 

Research analysts study publicly traded companies and make recommendations on the securities of those companies. Most specialize in a particular industry or sector of the economy. They exert considerable influence in today’s marketplace. Analysts’ recommendations or reports can influence the price of a company’s stock—especially when the recommendations are widely disseminated through television appearances or through other electronic and print media. The mere mention of a company by a popular analyst can temporarily cause its stock to rise or fall—even when nothing about the company’s prospects or fundamentals has recently changed.

Analysts often use a variety of terms—buy, strong buy, near-term or long-term accumulate, near-term or long-term over-perform or under-perform, neutral, hold—to describe their recommendations. But the meanings of these terms can differ from firm to firm. Rather than make assumptions, investors should carefully read the definitions of all ratings used in each research report. They should also consider the firm’s disclosures regarding what percentage of all ratings fall into either “buy,” “hold/neutral,” and “sell” categories.

Dedicated investors tend to spend a lot of time trying to decipher the correct procedure for beating the stock market. This may involve figuring out a proper strategy, and deciding which stocks to start with when constructing a portfolio. Building a portfolio does not have to be a frantic race. In fact, not rushing into things may end up putting the investor in a good position to succeed. There are times when tough decisions need to be made when dealing with the equity market. Spending enough time to assess all the possibilities before making an investing decision may pay off down the road. As most investors know, there is no magic formula for coming out a winner in the stock market. Acquiring the most possible knowledge about the markets and individual stocks can play a vital role in the long-term success of the individual investor. 

Earnings
Research analysts are predicting that athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATHN) will report earnings of $0.32 per share when the firm issues their next quarterly report. This is the consensus earnings per share number according to data from Zack’s Research.

Most recently athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATHN) posted quarterly earnings of $0.51 which compared to the sell-side estimates of 0.5. The stock’s 12-month trailing earnings per share stands at $2.05. Shares have moved $-6.01 over the past month and more recently, $0.23 over the past week heading into the earnings announcement. There are 17 analyst projections that were taken into consideration from respected brokerage firms.

athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATHN) closed the last session at $124.02 and sees an average of 498615.75 shares trade hands in each session. The 52-week low of the stock stands at $92.41 while the current level stands at 49.76% of the 52-week High-Low range. Looking further out we can see that the stock has moved -11.17% over the past 12 weeks and 17.92% year to date.

Buy Ratings
9 analysts rate athenahealth, Inc. a Buy or Strong Buy, which is 40.91% of all the analyst ratings.

This article is informational purposes only and should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell the stock.

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