Topic: How To Invest

What are the prospects for Catamaran Corp.? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

Catamaran Corp., $43.78, symbol CTRX on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 204.7 million; Market cap: $9.2 billion; www.catamarancorp.com), is a pharmacy benefits manager. (These companies negotiate discounts from pharmaceutical firms so their clients—employers—can provide drug benefits to their workers at less cost.) Catamaran also provides information technology services to the health care benefits management industry. The company bought Catalyst Health Solutions for $4.4 billion in July 2012. It then changed its name to Catamaran from SXC Health Solutions Corp. The combined business is now the fourth-largest pharmacy benefits manager in the U.S. by prescription volume: it manages over 350 million prescriptions each year on behalf of 32 million customers. In October 2013, it acquired Restat LLC for $409.5 million. Restat processes prescription claims and manages pharmacy benefits for businesses, workers’ compensation plans and unions. In the three months ended March 31, 2014, Catamaran’s revenue rose 52.6%, to $4.9 billion from $3.2 billion a year earlier. The gain came from rising claim volumes, including from a new…