Leedle crawls under the options wire
Posted on November 12, 2009 at 11:47 am
Healthways CEO Ben Leedle on Tuesday exercised 30,000 options that would have expired this morning. He sold about half of the resulting shares (Ticker: HWAY) at eight times his cost — primarily to cover the tax bill — and has retained almost $250,000 worth of new shares of the disease manager.
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Analyst action: Healthways, Pinnacle, Synovus
Posted on October 26, 2009 at 12:46 pm
After Healthways’ big gain following its Q3 report, Stifel Nicolaus analyst Tom Carroll has lowered his rating on the disease manager (Ticker: HWAY) to ‘hold’ from ‘buy.’ The valuation-based call is diametrically opposed to that of Art Henderson at Jefferies, who on Friday upgraded Healthways and raised his target to $20. So far, Carroll is winning: Healthways is down 7 percent today.
At Zacks Investment Research, shares of Pinnacle Financial are now on the ‘exclusive’ list of stocks investors should sell or avoid in the coming months. Pinnacle (Ticker: PNFP) last week reported a larger-than-expected loss.
And in related regional banking news, Wunderlich analyst Kevin Reynolds has some strong words on Synovus Financial Group, the parent of The Bank of Nashville. Reynolds has dropped Synovus to a ’sell’ and slapped a price target of $1.50 on the shares — half the price at the open today. The company last week posted a loss of more than $400 million and its stock (Ticker: SNV) has fallen more than 60 percent this year.
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A nice way to end the week
Posted on October 23, 2009 at 3:53 pmFollowing an upbeat earnings report, Healthways shares (Ticker: HWAY) rose 14 percent on Friday to their highest level in 13 months.
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Wanted: A new face for a Healthways class action – and the ability to make meetings
Posted on September 25, 2009 at 2:08 am
The class action that took to task disease manager Healthways about its use of company stock in its 401(k) plan has been voluntarily dismissed because the lead plaintiff couldn’t make it to a deposition and had to withdraw from the case. The matter had been in the discovery phase with a trial date scheduled for next April.
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Two local health care players on IT best-of list
Posted on September 15, 2009 at 10:59 am
Healthways has been ranked 35th on the annual InformationWeek 500 list of top information technology organizations. The only other locally headquartered ranked in the top list’s top half is HCA. First Horizon, the Memphis-based parent of First Tennessee Bank, also ranks in the top 50.
SEE ALSO: Healthways’ release on the topic
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Healthways pops on upgrade
Posted on September 10, 2009 at 11:45 am
…And maybe something related to President Obama’s health reform speech last night.
William Blair has upgraded shares of Healthways to ‘outperform’ from ‘market perform.’ The stock (Ticker: HWAY) is up more than 10 percent today and has risen by a quarter this month.
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Ardent picks wellness partner
Posted on September 1, 2009 at 6:32 amAnd it ain’t Middle Tennessee neighbor Healthways. Hospital operator Ardent Health Services has signed Ohio-based Bravo Wellness to a three-year deal that will give participating employees a discount on their health insurance premiums.
Bravo’s corporate wellness programs provide employers with an average annual savings of nearly 10 percent. While only three in 10 employees participate in traditional wellness programs, Bravo’s programs provide financial incentives that increase employee participation. Most Bravo clients experience an average of 92 percent participation.
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How Medicare can save trillions
Posted on July 30, 2009 at 8:05 amRepeat after me: “Reduced health risk progression, reduced health risk progression…”
Healthways’ research staff has crunched a bunch of numbers to tell us that if seniors enter Medicare in a healthier state — having been coached on wellness and disease management in the years before they become eligible — the government health care program could spend $1.4 trillion less over a decade.
“The government and health care industry have long believed there to be a substantial cost benefit from prevention, health promotion and chronic care management,” said Ben R. Leedle,
Healthways chief executive officer. “This research validates and quantifies that assumption and
could have significant implications for the reform debate, health benefit coverage and policy in
general.”
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Nice end to Healthways’ week
Posted on July 24, 2009 at 1:01 pmAfter it raised its earnings guidance yesterday – leading to an upgrade to ‘buy’ from BB&T Capital Markets – shares of the disease manager (Ticker: HWAY) are up almost 20 percent.
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HWAY marketers honored
Posted on July 14, 2009 at 10:42 amHealthways’ marketing team recently received the Innovator Award in the “Emerging Media” category from Summit International Awards.
For 15 years, Summit International Awards has been dedicated to acknowledging outstanding achievements in the creative and communications industries. Healthways was recognized for development of an interactive demonstration of the Healthways Wellness Portal, which trains users to make the most out of the site.
“In our business, engagement and behavior change is a core competency. Inspiring people to better lifestyles and healthier behaviors only happens through trust in the program,” said Steve Brueckner, Healthways president and chief operating officer. “This award is high accolades for us, demonstrating our industry leading position in engagement.”
The Healthways Wellness Portal makes health improvement easier for users who have busy lives. The goal of the demonstration is to give users the knowledge they need to interact with the Wellness Portal to their best advantage. The Wellness Portal packs a wealth of helpful information and features aimed at improving health and well-being, including a health risk assessment, a detailed personal health report and a comprehensive health tracker feature.
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Way to be more ‘well’
Posted on July 9, 2009 at 1:36 pmApparently, according to the June well-being index released by Healthways and Gallup Inc., we’re doing better
After tracking significant setbacks in well-being through the financial crisis of 2008-2009, the June Well-Being Report shows America may be on the road to recovery. Overall well-being reached 66.8, its second highest level since the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index™ (WBI) began in January 2008. The Life Evaluation Index (LEI), one of the six sub-indices composing the WBI, stabilized after dramatic gains over the past few months, ending at 47.8, a new high for the LEI beating the previous high from May 2009 of 47.5.
Full index found here.
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Bad timing for Healthways bull
Posted on June 29, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Whoever stepped in big time late on Friday to snap up shares of Healthways – volume was more than five times the daily average – didn’t see this morning’s Goldman downgrade coming. Shares of Healthways (Ticker: HWAY) are off almost 8 percent.
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Goldman lowers Healthways
Posted on at 8:12 amThe investment bank says the Franklin-based disease manager faces several headwinds during the recession and beyond, including the risk that insurance clients bring risk management services in house. Analyst Daryn Miller says investors should sell Healthways shares (Ticker: HWAY), which are up 60 percent this year.
Healthways set to pop
Posted on April 20, 2009 at 9:40 pmThe disease manager’s first-quarter results — while ugly on the surface due to a large litigation settlement — were well received by after-hours investors, who bid the shares (Ticker: HWAY) up 11 percent on word that CEO Ben Leedle and his team are sticking to their full-year earnings guidance.
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The world according to Cigarran
Posted on April 7, 2009 at 3:48 pmHealthways founder and chairman Tom Cigarran talks through his ideas on a possible fix for the U.S. health care system in an article from Roll Call. Put simply, with universal coverage will come rationing, but what the country can provide is basic care for everyone, he asserts. Unfortunately, the public is being built up for something else.
“Politicians considering health reform, Cigarran said, are indulging Americans’ “unrealistic expectations” that they can have it all - the highest quality medical care and the latest technology, all conveniently supplied and delivered perfectly. And, paid for by someone else.”
As he says earlier in the article,
“The country owes a basic level of care to its citizens, but not everything-for-everyone Cadillac coverage.”
A great deal more detail is provided in the full article.
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