One-glance verdict
Within fair range
$26.65 our estimate vs market $20.42
Wall Street consensus: $26.00 (-2.4% lower than our fair-value estimate)
23% below our estimate
Fundamentals snapshot
NRC Health
NRC · NMS · Healthcare · Health Information Services
Current price
$20.42
52-week range
$11.01 - $23.68
Market cap
$451.68M
Balance sheet
Distressed
4.74x Stretched
Net debt $87.12M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
2 Risks
3 rewards · 2 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 1.9% last year.
- Reward Returns 42.0% on equity, ahead of 83% of its peers.
- Risk Stock trades 194.6% above its 5-year average P/E.
- Risk Operating margin compressed from 30.7% to -0.2% over 3 years.
What this company does
NRC Health
NRC Health sells software and data services to hospitals to help them understand what patients and employees think about the care they provide. The company makes most of its money from subscriptions for these tools, which creates predictable recurring revenue (income that is expected to continue regularly). This matters because hospitals are increasingly focused on patient satisfaction, which can affect their reputation and funding.
How the company got here
NRC Health began its journey in 1981 as National Research Corporation, a company focused on surveying patients to measure healthcare performance. [1, 3] Over the years, it grew by acquiring other companies, adding capabilities like physician ratings and services for hospital leadership. [3] This evolution shifted its focus from simply collecting data to providing a wider range of tools for understanding the entire healthcare experience. To reflect this broader mission, the company rebranded from its original name to NRC Health in 2016. [3]
What it actually does
NRC Health provides software and data services to hospitals and doctor's offices to help them understand and improve the experiences of their patients and employees. [1, 2] Through surveys, online reputation tracking, and other tools, they gather feedback on everything from the quality of care to how the hospital is viewed in the local community. [1] Healthcare providers subscribe to these services to pinpoint areas for improvement, with the goal of increasing patient loyalty and providing better care. [4] Essentially, NRC Health acts as an intelligence partner, telling a hospital what it's truly like to be a patient or employee there. [1]
Patient Experience
This is the historical core of NRC Health's business, making up a large portion of its work. [1] The company provides systems that automatically survey patients after a visit or hospital stay to gather feedback on their care. [2, 7] Hospitals pay for this service to measure their performance and compare it against their peers, a process called benchmarking (seeing how your performance stacks up against others in the same field). [1] These insights help hospitals improve patient safety, satisfaction, and loyalty. [9]
Consumer & Market Experience
This business line helps hospitals understand the needs and perceptions of the entire community, not just their existing patients. [9, 10] It provides data on the hospital's brand perception (what the public thinks and feels about the hospital) and helps identify what healthcare services people in the area want most. [1] Hospitals use these insights to make strategic decisions about which services to offer and how to best communicate with the public to attract new patients. [22] This is a significant part of the company's offerings, focused on growth and marketing for their clients.
Employee Experience
This segment focuses on improving the work life of a hospital's own staff, from doctors to nurses and support teams. [2, 10] NRC Health offers tools to survey employees about their engagement (their connection and motivation for their work) and overall job satisfaction. [16] The core idea is that a supported and engaged workforce leads to better and safer patient care. [14] Hospitals pay for these services to reduce staff turnover and improve their internal culture.
The Governance Institute
This is a specialized business that operates as a membership service for the top leaders of not-for-profit health systems, such as their board members and executives. [2, 3] It provides them with research, publications, and conferences focused on the big-picture challenges of running a healthcare organization. [10] Think of it as an exclusive educational and advisory club that helps the people in charge make more informed strategic decisions for their hospitals. [3] It represents a smaller, more focused part of NRC Health's overall business.
What management is betting on now
The company's main strategy is to move beyond just providing data and become a deeply embedded partner for what it calls "Human Understanding" in healthcare. [1] A key part of this is a big investment in artificial intelligence (AI), which involves computers that can recognize patterns and make sense of information. [19] They are using their AI engine, named Huey, to automatically analyze patient comments and even capture feedback from live conversations to make the process more natural. [7, 10] The ultimate goal is to use technology to help healthcare organizations build trust and loyalty with both their patients and employees. [14]
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q3
$7.83M
FY2024 Q4
$1.94M
FY2025 Q1
$3.66M
FY2025 Q2
$-4.15M
FY2025 Q3
$10.18M
FY2025 Q4
$6.06M
FY2026 Q1
$5.35M
FY2026 Q2
$62.00K
Revenue
$35.39M
Net income
$-3.28M
Diluted EPS
-0.15
Operating cash flow
$1.39M
Free cash flow
$62.00K
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Sources
Revenue
$34.80M
Net income
$3.22M
Diluted EPS
0.14
Operating cash flow
$7.18M
Free cash flow
$5.35M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$35.19M
Net income
—
Diluted EPS
49.58
Operating cash flow
$7.18M
Free cash flow
$6.06M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$34.61M
Net income
—
Diluted EPS
0.18
Operating cash flow
$13.76M
Free cash flow
$10.18M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$34.04M
Net income
$-106.00K
Diluted EPS
-0.01
Operating cash flow
$-1.14M
Free cash flow
$-4.15M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$33.55M
Net income
$5.79M
Diluted EPS
0.25
Operating cash flow
$6.65M
Free cash flow
$3.66M
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Sources
Revenue
$36.91M
Net income
—
Diluted EPS
0.27
Operating cash flow
$6.38M
Free cash flow
$1.94M
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Sources
Revenue
$35.82M
Net income
—
Diluted EPS
0.24
Operating cash flow
$9.42M
Free cash flow
$7.83M
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Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $26.65 vs current price $20.42
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $26.00 (-2.4% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $26.65 a share — about 30.5% away from today's price of $20.42, so the stock currently looks fairly priced.
Is it drowning in debt?
Distressed
Net debt $87.1M. Interest coverage 4.7x.
Net debt
$87.12M
Interest coverage
4.74x
NRC Health's profit covers its interest bill about 4.7 times over. which is stronger than most peers shown here and 4 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Distressed
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
NRC
BASELINE
NRC Health
Total debt $90.45M Interest coverage 4.74x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $13.43M Interest coverage 6.06x +28% vs NRC Carries about 1.3x more debt cushion than NRC.
Total debt $67.95M Interest coverage -0.95x -100% vs NRC This peer has almost no interest-payment cushion compared with NRC.
Total debt $970.43M Interest coverage -0.35x -100% vs NRC This peer has almost no interest-payment cushion compared with NRC.
Total debt $51.38M Interest coverage -18.01x -100% vs NRC This peer has almost no interest-payment cushion compared with NRC.
Total debt $167.06M Interest coverage -1.82x -100% vs NRC This peer has almost no interest-payment cushion compared with NRC.
What you should know
The case for and against NRC
3 Rewards
2 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 1.9% last year.
-
Returns 42.0% on equity, ahead of 83% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
Risks
-
Stock trades 194.6% above its 5-year average P/E.
-
Operating margin compressed from 30.7% to -0.2% over 3 years.
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
85.08x
Forward P/E
19.45x
P/B
68.99x
P/S
3.23x
EV/EBITDA
20.20x
PEG ratio
1.32x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
61.7%
Operating margin
-0.2%
Net margin
4.2%
ROE
42.0%
ROA
8.1%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
13.81x
Current ratio
0.65x
Quick ratio
0.49x
Total debt
$90.45M
Total cash
$3.33M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$140.00M
Revenue 5Y CAGR
-1.8%
EPS TTM
0.24
EPS 5Y CAGR
-26.7%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$29.51M
Free CF TTM
$15.74M
FCF margin
11.2%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
3.1%
Payout ratio
250.0%
Last ex-div date
2026-09-25