Oppenheimer Maintains Underperform on athenahealth

Oppenheimer is out with its report today on athenahealth ATHN, maintaining Underperform. In a note to clients, Oppenheimer writes, "athena delivered strong 2Q11 results, exceeding consensus estimates for both revenue and EPS. In conjunction with 2Q results, athena announced plans to acquire Proxsys, which focuses on front-end revenue cycle functions for hospitals. While we see the strategic value of athena managing inpatient preregistration, precertification and referrals, we question whether Proxsys will prove to be a meaningful sales partner, given the challenges athena has had cross-selling into the Anodyne base. We were certainly impressed with 2Q results but continue to believe athena will be challenged living up to the doc add expectations built into the shares' valuation. Therefore, we maintain our Underperform rating." At the time of posting, shares of ATHN were trading pre-market at $53.02, up 9.14% from Thursday's close.