UPDATE: Barclays Begins Coverage on Cerner and Advisory Board

Barclays Wednesday reports includes a note from analyst Eric Percher for coverage initiation on Cerner Corporation and The Advisory Board Company

with an Overweight rating for each company. Price target of $79. Percher notes, "Given our findings that the transition to value-based reimbursement and implementation of population health tools on a large scale will be at least a five- to seven-year journey, we favor companies that either provide services which will enable the journey itself or have demonstrated opportunities to drive growth outside of population health offerings. We believe no company is better positioned to advise hospital leadership than Advisory Board and Cerner's diversified growth strategy should drive double-digit growth even absent meaningful population health contributions." ABCO closed Tuesday at $66.79 and opened Wednesday morning at $67. CERN closed previous session at $61.86 and opened at $61.94.