MedAssets Shares Popped: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of hospital software provider MedAssets (NAS: MDAS) were raising the roof today, gaining as much as 14% in intraday trading after Wall Street firm Raymond James upgraded the stock from "outperform" to "strong buy."

So what: There's nothing too complicated about this story -- Raymond James shouted "buy" and investors are doing as told. The brokerage house said the valuation on MedAssets' stock looks good and slapped a $15 price target on it.

Now what: Wall Street recommendations like this can be a good reason to take a closer look at a stock, but they're never reason enough alone to hit the buy button. Based on current expectations for 2011 earnings, MedAssets' stock trades at an attractive price-to-earnings ratio of 11.5. However, investors will want to make sure that they're comfortable with the company's debt-laden balance sheet and the extent to which it has relied on acquisitions for growth.

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