What's The Hottest Tech Stock in the Philly Area?

It's Quality Systems, Inc, which is actually headquartered in Orange County, California. But over 90% of its revenue comes from its NextGen Healthcare Information Systems unit based in Horsham. NextGen's principal business is providing Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems and related services to medical practices.
Though they took a small haircut yesterday, Quality System's shares closed at $56.53, up 30% from the beginning of this year and 65% from one year ago. That gives the company a market capitalization of $1.6 billion.
While there may be some speculative froth in the stock's recent run, the company does produce excellent results. NextGen's revenue increased 40% to $61.5 million in the third quarter of Fiscal '09 (ending 12/31/08) or about 23% excluding the impact of acquisitions. Operating margins were 37%. Quality Systems had no long-term debt on its balance sheet at the end of the last quarter, and should have plenty of flexibility for financing acquisitions.
The real stimulus for Quality's stock price is the Health IT Stimulus Act, a part of the President's broader stimulus package, which provides $19 billion for Healthcare IT much of which is specifically designated toward helping fund the adoption of EHRs. Doctors will be rewarded with incentives if they adopt EHRs and penalized in later years with reduced medicare payments if they don't. Today, most experts estimate that perhaps 10 to 15% of physicians are using EHRs. Adoption is slowed not only by the cost but the complexity of changing over while you are trying to run a practice. There is also considerable concern over what standards will emerge for EHRs and their interoperability with other systems.
Reagardless of the pace of adoption, NextGen and Quality Systems are likely to benefit from the Healthcare IT push. But some analysts seem wary about recommending the company's stock at it current price level.