Salt Lake City-based data and analytics company Health Catalyst reported its fourth-quarter 2019 revenue grew 21% to $43.5 million, beating Wall Street estimates of $41.7 million.
The company's full-year 2019 revenue grew to $154.9 million, up 38% compared to 2018 revenue of $112.5 million.
The company, which was founded in 2008, had a strong trading debut when it went public in July 2019. The company's shares were up 4.8% Thursday, according to Seeking Alpha.
Health Catalyst is one of a handful of health technology companies that went public in 2019, after a three-year drought of IPOs. Livongo, Phreesia, Change Healthcare and fertility benefits management company Progyny all went public last year. Primary care company One Medical went public in January.
In its fourth-quarter and full-year 2019 earnings call Thursday, Health Catalyst CEO Dan Burton reported the company's adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter 2019 was a loss of $6.5 million, which shows "meaningful improvement" from a loss of $9.4 million for the same period in the prior year.
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Full-year 2019 adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $27.4 million, an improvement from a loss of $38.1 million in 2018, Burton said.
The company's pro forma adjusted earnings per share in the fourth quarter came to a loss of 21 cents, beating Wall Street estimates of a loss of 29 cents per share, Chief Financial Officer Patrick Nelli said.
For the full year 2019, the company's adjusted net loss per share was 93 cents.
“We concluded an exceptional year for Health Catalyst on a high note in the fourth quarter of 2019, achieving strong results across all areas of our business and exceeded the midpoint of our guidance for the quarter,” Burton said.
"We feel confident that our momentum from 2019 will continue into 2020 and enable us to achieve strong financial and operational results in a manner that is consistent with our mission," he said.
Health Catalyst expects first-quarter 2020 revenue between $42 million and $45 million, and adjusted EBITDA of a loss between $8.5 million and $6.5 million
Full-year 2020 is expected to reach between $185 million and $188 million, representing growth between 19% to 21%.
The company also expects its adjusted EBITDA loss to shrink to between a loss of $23.5 million and $20.5 million.
Burton said the company continues to see strong growth as healthcare organizations look for technology partners to help automate basic data infrastructure, architecture and operational tasks, which have been largely manual processes to date.
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The company is uniquely positioned to help healthcare organizations use analytics to tackle major challenges like wasteful spending, changing economics and increasing data complexity.
During a Q&A with analysts, Burton said he did not anticipate that growing fears over the coronavirus outbreak would impact healthcare organizations' technology buying decisions in 2020.
The 2020 election cycle also will likely not have a major impact on the company's business, he said.
"The good news from the perspective of Health Catalyst is that in whatever political or reimbursement landscape we find ourselves within, the market continues to believe in the need for data and analytics," he said, noting that the company's model is not tied to the transition to value-based care like some other health IT companies.
On Feb. 20, Health Catalyst announced it was buying Able Health, a cloud-based quality, and regulatory measurement tracking and reporting company, for $27 million.
The acquisition will bolster Health Catalyst's existing quality and regulatory measures capabilities due in part to Able Health's SaaS application, which automates measures reporting, the company said.
Burton said the company is looking for other acquisition opportunities to add applications to its platform.
"Importantly, we see, by far, the most opportunity for acquisition activity in the apps layer, where there are literally hundreds of companies, many of which are start-ups that have developed some very innovative technology capabilities," he said.