Watertown, Mass.-based athenahealth recently released its financial results and said it hopes to increase revenue by 15 to 30 percent this year. However, analysts believe the company's ambitions might be too high, reports the Boston Business Journal.
In an earnings call, athenahealth officials claimed they anticipate the company's bookings will grow to $450 million in 2017.
But a few analysts beg to differ. "Since bookings grew just 5 percent year-over-year in 2016, we believe that it will be difficult to realize approximately 15 to 30 percent year-over-year growth in 2017," analysts with Boston-based Leerink told the Boston Business Journal.
Mohan Naidu, a managing director at New York City-based Oppenheimer & Co., agreed. "That's a huge ramp-up they are expecting," he said. "We asked that question on the call and they are confident of that range."
Despite analysts' predictions, athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush remains confident his company's products will play a key role in reaching anticipated results. "There are two emerging services that were kind of at pilot level of, what do you call them, high velocity low mass — so the inpatient group and the population health group," he said. "Both of them we're expecting to hit mass this year. If they don't, then we won't get those numbers. but we believe the demand is there and the product is there."