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what it is
Waystar sells software that helps doctors and hospitals fight through insurance billing and collect cash.
how it gets paid
Last year Waystar made $1.1B in revenue. claims management was the main engine at $0.39B, or 35% of sales.
why it's growing
Revenue grew 16.5% last year. EPS reached $0.51, up 200% vs. prior year, while annual revenue was $1.1B, up 16.5%.
what just happened
Revenue hit $796M, up 196% vs. prior year.
At a glance
B balance sheet — gets the job done, barely
18.2x trailing p/e — priced about right
7.0% return on capital — nothing to write home about
$1.85 fy2027 eps est
$2B fy2029 rev est
xvary composite: 50/100 — below average
What they do
Waystar sells software that helps doctors and hospitals fight through insurance billing and collect cash.
Waystar sits in the middle of a miserable process you cannot afford to break. It serves more than 30,000 clients and processes over 7.5 billion healthcare payment transactions, so the product is buried inside daily billing workflows. Mission-critical software → software your staff uses to get paid → ripping it out can delay cash collections.
How they make money
$1.1B
annual revenue · their business grew +16.5% last year
claims management
$0.39B
payment accuracy and denial management
$0.26B
patient payments
$0.18B
eligibility and prior authorization
$0.15B
clinical intelligence and appeals
$0.12B
The products that matter
claims, payments, and denials software
Revenue Cycle Management Platform
7.5B annual transactions
It processes over 7.5 billion healthcare transactions a year. That's the core reason customers stay and the cleanest argument for the margin profile.
scale moat
core software revenue engine
Software & Platform
$880M · 80% of mix shown
This is the $880M engine growing 18%. If WAY is going to earn its multiple, this segment has to keep outgrowing the rest of the business.
18% growth
ai workflow automation
AltitudeAI
mar 2026 narrative test
Management is clearly pushing this into the story, but the page gives you no revenue attached to it yet. What you do have is timing: the AI recognition landed just before the Chief Business Officer resignation took effect on Mar 2, 2026.
story vs proof
Key numbers
$2.0B
2029 revenue goal
Revenue was $1.1B last year, so hitting $2.0B by FY2029 means nearly doubling the business in four years.
22.7%
operating margin
Operating margin → profit after running the business → so what: Waystar already converts about $0.23 of every revenue dollar into operating profit.
18.2x
trailing p/e
P/E → price versus last year's earnings → so what: you are not paying a nosebleed multiple for a business growing revenue 16.5%.
7.0%
return on capital
Return on capital → profit earned on money invested in the business → so what: this is decent, not elite, and leaves room for improvement.
Financial health
B
strength
- balance sheet grade B — adequate — nothing special
- risk rank 3 — safer than 50% of stocks
- net profit margin 25.8% — keeps 26 cents of every dollar in revenue
- return on equity 8% — $0.08 profit for every $1 investors have put in
B — functional but not a standout on the balance sheet.
Total return vs. market
Return history isn't available for WAY right now.
source: institutional data · return history unavailable
What just happened
beat estimates
Revenue hit $796M, up 196% vs. prior year.
EPS reached $0.51, up 200% vs. prior year, while annual revenue was $1.1B, up 16.5%. The quiet part is simple: acquisition help juiced the quarter, and now investors need to see clean follow-through.
$796M
revenue
$0.51
eps
22.7%
gross margin
the number that mattered
The $796M revenue print mattered most because it showed just how much scale Waystar added in one shot, even if some of that came from acquisition math.
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we are initiating coverage on waystar holding corp. this week in the institutional data.the company originally formed in 2017 through the merger of revenue cycle management companies navicure and zirmed.
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waystar is a healthcare technology company that operates as a software-as-a-service provider.
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its primary mission is to simplify the complex and often flawed process by which healthcare providers get paid by insurance companies and patients.the altitudeai system offers a suite of ai capabilities into provider workflows and processes over 7.5 billion transactions annually.
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the system automates complex tasks such as denial management and clinical appeals.
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the stock has performed poorly of late.
source: company earnings report, 2026
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What could go wrong
the #1 risk is executive turnover after the AltitudeAI push.
med
Chief Business Officer exit
The Chief Business Officer resignation became effective on Mar 2, 2026. When a senior commercial leader leaves while the company is selling an AI-led growth story, investors start asking whether the story is cleaner than the execution.
If the handoff is messy, it can pressure bookings, partnerships, and the premium investors assign to a 35–36% margin profile.
med
Crowded revenue-cycle market
Healthcare revenue cycle management is a real software category and a crowded one. WAY's edge is scale, but rivals also pitch cloud tools and AI automation to the same provider budgets.
If software growth slips from 18% toward the 11% pace of services, the stock stops looking like a compounding software asset and starts looking like a mature vendor.
med
Narrative outrunning proof
This page itself shows the problem. One section says revenue grew 10.9%. Another says 16.5%. One part of the snapshot shows roughly $1.1B in segment revenue. Another points to $2B. The broad direction is good. The precision is not.
When the data story is fuzzy, investors default to caution. That matters more for a stock already sitting 26% below its 52-week high.
If growth settles closer to 10.9% than 16.5% and margins slip from 35–36%, the premium software framing weakens fast.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
margin
36% adjusted EBITDA margin
This is the number protecting the stock right now. If it starts moving down while management spends harder on AI and sales, the market will notice quickly.
management
CBO replacement and customer continuity
A named successor matters less than whether major provider and payer relationships look stable after the Mar 2, 2026 transition.
calendar
Next earnings print
The next quarter needs to do two things at once: keep growth in double digits and show the AI story is helping the business, not just the deck.
mix shift
Software staying ahead of services
The 18% versus 11% growth split is healthy. You want that gap to persist, because the higher-value software layer should be leading the company forward.
Analyst rankings
earnings outlook
$1.85
fy2027 eps estimate. in human-speak, analysts think profit should step up meaningfully from here.
revenue outlook
$2B
fy2029 revenue target. The street still sees a bigger platform ahead, even if the current page data is not perfectly aligned.
quality check
mixed
You have enough estimate data to see optimism. You do not have enough clean rank detail here to treat consensus as gospel.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutions have been net buying for 3 consecutive quarters — 127 buyers vs. 98 sellers in 4q2025. total institutional holdings: 0.2B shares. net buying for 3 quarters.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
$19
$42
$26
current price
$31
target midpoint · +20% from current · 3-5yr high: $65 (+150% · 26% ann'l return)
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