What Happened?

Shares of healthcare software provider Health Catalyst (NASDAQ:HCAT) fell 20.9% in the morning session after the company reported poor fourth-quarter results, with full-year revenue guidance missing expectations. However, Health Catalyst provided optimistic full-year EBITDA guidance, significantly surpassing analysts' estimates. Still, this was a weaker quarter.

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What The Market Is Telling Us

Health Catalyst’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 38 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for Health Catalyst and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business. 

The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 7 months ago when the stock gained 40.1% on the news that the company reported second-quarter results that narrowly topped analysts' revenue expectations, while EPS beat by a more convincing margin. Adjusted EBITDA and Free cash flow also beat Wall Street's estimates during the quarter. On the other hand, its revenue guidance for the next quarter missed analysts' expectations, and its gross margin shrunk. Overall, this was a mixed, yet decent quarter for the company.

Health Catalyst is down 42.1% since the beginning of the year, and at $4.25 per share, it is trading 52.9% below its 52-week high of $9.02 from December 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Health Catalyst’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $153.21.

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