Cerner Beats Earnings

This morning’s ADP report showed an increase in April payrolls of 742,000. While that’s a huge number, it’s still short of Wall Street’s expectations of 800,000. The official jobs report is this Friday.

Leisure and hospitality, the sector hurt the most by pandemic-related business lockdowns, led growth with 237,000 new positions. The industry is still about 3 million shy of where it was before the pandemic but has been adding jobs steadily since federal and state governments have been relaxing restrictions.

Trade, transportation and utilities also was a major contributor, adding 155,000 new jobs, while professional and business services contributed 104,000 and education and health services increased by 92,000 as students headed back to in-school learning.

Services typically account for the bulk of job growth, and that was true again in April as the sector added 636,000 positions.

Jessica Alba’s Honest Company raised $412.8 million in its IPO. The ticker symbol is HNST. The company is valued at $1.44 billion. She started the company in 2011. Good for her!

The WSJ reports that Berkshire Hathaway’s stock is too high for the Nasdaq’s computers. The highest number the exchange can use is 2 to the 32nd minus one, but they use four decimal places. That means the highest possible price is $429,496.7295. This morning, the A shares have been as high as 427,435.12.

This morning, Cerner (CERN) reported earnings of 76 cents per share. Wall Street had been expecting 74 cents per share. Cerner has also approved a new share buyback program, which lets Cerner to repurchase up to $3.75 billion through the end of 2023.

For Q2, Cerner sees 20% earnings growth over last year’s Q2. The company made 63 cents per share in last year’s Q2, so that implies earnings of 76 cents per share which matches Wall Street’s forecast.

“Cerner’s first quarter results reflect a solid start to the year,” said Brent Shafer, chairman and CEO. “We are sharpening our focus and moving forward with a renewed sense of urgency in delivering value to our clients and shareholders. These efforts are reflected in Cerner’s improved earnings outlook for the year.”

“The new repurchase program reflects the Board of Directors’ and our entire leadership team’s belief in Cerner’s long-term potential and emphasizes our ongoing commitment to returning capital to shareholders,” said Mark Erceg, executive vice president and chief financial officer. “With our strong balance sheet and anticipated future cash flow, we are well positioned to continue making investments in growth while also executing a balanced capital allocation strategy.”

Cerner raised its full-year guidance to over $3.20 per share. The previous range was $3.10 to $3.20 per share.

Update: Shares of Cerner were down as much as 4.85% today but only lost 1.17% by the closing bell.

Posted by on May 5th, 2021 at 11:40 am


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