National Research (NRC) AI Stock Analysis

• Market Cap: $399.65M
• Dividend Yield: 2.52%
• Average Volume (3M): 102.91K
• Price to Earnings (P/E): 36.2
• Beta (1Y): 0.70
• Revenue Growth: -3.50%
• EPS Growth: -37.46%
• Country: US
• Employees: 368
• Sector: Healthcare
• Sector Strength: 45
• Industry: Medical - Healthcare Information Services
• EPS (TTM): 0.08
• Shares Outstanding: 22,746,397
• 10 Day Avg. Volume: 100,181
• 30 Day Avg. Volume: 102,911
• PEG Ratio: -0.72
• Price to Book (P/B): 30.03
• Price to Sales (P/S): 3.06
• P/FCF Ratio: 26.69
• Enterprise Value/Market Cap: 1.18
• Enterprise Value/Revenue: 3.45
• Enterprise Value/Gross Profit: 6.12
• Enterprise Value/Ebitda: 15.66
• 1Y Price Target: N/A
• Price Target Upside: N/A
• Rating Consensus: N/A
• Number of Analyst Covering: 0
• EPS Forecast (FY): N/A
• Revenue Forecast (FY): N/A

• Rating: 46 Neutral
• Price Target: $17.50 ▼(-10.21% Downside)
• Action: Reiterated Date: 03/05/26
• Date: Action: Reiterated 03/05/26

The score is primarily held back by deteriorating financial performance (declining revenue and margin compression) and elevated balance-sheet leverage, alongside bearish technical momentum (price below key moving averages and negative MACD). These negatives are only partially offset by positive free cash flow, a ~4% dividend yield, and a constructive corporate update showing record recurring contract value growth.

Positive Factors

Recurring Revenue Momentum

A record Total Recurring Contract Value indicates growing contracted, renewable revenue and stronger customer commitments. That expands revenue visibility, supports predictable cash flows and underpins long-term customer retention and cross-sell potential, improving structural revenue stability.

High Gross Margin

Sustained gross margins near 56% point to durable pricing power or a scalable delivery model in healthcare information services. High gross margins provide a structural buffer to absorb SG&A and R&D, enabling operating profitability even amid top-line pressure.

Positive Free Cash Flow

Consistent positive operating and free cash flow demonstrates ability to internally fund operations, dividends and some reinvestment. Even with weaker conversion, positive FCF provides durable financial flexibility versus peers that rely more on external financing.

Negative Factors

Elevated Leverage

Sharp rise in leverage materially reduces financial flexibility and raises refinancing and covenant risk. High debt sensitivity makes the company vulnerable to earnings volatility and increases the cost of capital, constraining strategic options and long-term resilience.

Declining Revenue & Net Margin

Sustained top-line contraction and meaningful net margin compression suggest structural demand weakness, pricing pressure, or adverse mix shifts. This trend undermines long-term earnings power and limits the firm's ability to deleverage and invest for growth.

Weaker Cash Conversion

Deteriorating conversion of earnings to cash reduces reliability of reported profits to fund debt service, dividends and capex. With elevated leverage, weaker cash conversion increases refinancing and liquidity risk and restricts capacity to pursue strategic investments.

National Research Business Overview & Revenue Model

Company Description

National Research Corporation provides analytics and insights that facilitate measurement and enhancement of the patient and employee experience in the United States and Canada. Its portfolio of subscription-based solutions provides actionable information and analysis to healthcare organizations across a range of mission-critical, constituent-related elements, including patient experience, service recovery, care transitions, health risk assessments, employee engagement, reputation management, and brand loyalty. The company also offers market insights solutions that allow the tracking of awareness, perception, and consistency of healthcare brands; assessment of competitive differentiators; and enhanced segmentation tools to evaluate needs, wants, and behaviors of communities through real-time competitive assessments and enhanced segmentation tools. In addition, it provides experience solutions, such as patient and resident experience, workforce engagement, health risk assessments, transitions, and improvement tools. Further, the company offers health risk assessment solutions that enable clients to segment populations and manage care for those who are most at risk, engage individuals, enhance preventative care, and manage wellness programs; and transitions solutions, which enable organizations to identify and manage high-risk patients to reduce readmissions, enhance patient satisfaction and support safe care transitions. Additionally, it provides transparency solutions that allow healthcare organizations to share picture of their organization and ensure content informs in consumer decision-making; and governance solutions for not-for-profit hospital and health system boards of directors, executives, and physician leadership. The company serves integrated health systems, post-acute providers, and payer organizations. National Research Corporation was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska.

How the Company Makes Money

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National Research Financial Statement Overview

Summary

Mixed fundamentals. Income statement trends have weakened with shrinking revenue and materially lower net margin (~8% TTM vs ~17% in 2024), while the balance sheet is a key risk with sharply higher leverage (debt-to-equity ~5.6x TTM). Offsetting this, cash flow remains positive with positive operating cash flow and free cash flow, though cash conversion has declined versus prior years.

Income Statement

Profitability remains solid in absolute terms, with TTM (Trailing-Twelve-Months) gross margin around 56% and operating profitability still positive. However, results have weakened materially versus prior years: revenue has been shrinking for several periods (TTM revenue down sharply), and net margin in TTM fell to ~8% from ~17% in 2024 and ~21% in 2022–2023. The trajectory shows compression across operating and net profitability, suggesting either pricing pressure, mix shift, or cost headwinds.

Balance Sheet

Leverage has risen significantly. Total debt increased while equity fell, pushing debt-to-equity to ~5.6x in TTM (Trailing-Twelve-Months) versus ~2.1x in 2024 and below 1.0x in 2022–2023. This higher leverage reduces financial flexibility and increases sensitivity to earnings volatility. While returns on equity are high, they are inflated by the much smaller equity base, which also raises balance-sheet risk.

Cash Flow

Cash generation is positive, with TTM (Trailing-Twelve-Months) operating cash flow (~$26.5M) and free cash flow (~$15.7M) both positive, and TTM free cash flow growth strong. That said, cash conversion is weaker than earlier years: operating cash flow covers only ~72% of net income in TTM (down from ~97% in 2024 and >100% in 2020–2023), and free cash flow is ~60% of net income, indicating less efficient conversion of profits into cash.

Breakdown	Dec 2025	Dec 2024	Dec 2023	Dec 2022	Dec 2021
Income Statement
Total Revenue	137.39M	143.06M	148.58M	151.57M	147.95M
Gross Profit	77.39M	86.13M	92.56M	94.52M	95.60M
EBITDA	30.23M	41.31M	45.98M	49.30M	56.66M
Net Income	11.60M	24.78M	30.97M	31.80M	37.47M
Balance Sheet
Total Assets	134.88M	132.54M	122.44M	130.46M	157.54M
Cash, Cash Equivalents and Short-Term Investments	4.14M	4.23M	6.65M	25.03M	54.36M
Total Debt	79.03M	64.41M	38.96M	23.39M	28.68M
Total Liabilities	120.89M	101.25M	73.48M	58.43M	72.20M
Stockholders Equity	13.99M	31.28M	48.95M	72.03M	85.34M
Cash Flow
Free Cash Flow	15.74M	19.18M	22.33M	26.43M	40.83M
Operating Cash Flow	26.45M	34.63M	38.11M	36.27M	46.34M
Investing Cash Flow	-10.71M	-20.28M	-15.78M	-9.84M	-8.51M
Financing Cash Flow	-15.84M	-16.76M	-40.71M	-55.58M	-18.16M

National Research Technical Analysis

• Technical Analysis Sentiment: Positive
• Last Price: 19.49
• 50DMA: Positive
• 100DMA: Positive
• 200DMA: Positive
• MACD: Negative
• RSI: Neutral
• STOCH: Negative

Evaluating momentum and price trends is crucial in stock analysis to make informed investment decisions. For NRC, the sentiment is Positive. The current price of 19.49 is above the 20-day moving average (MA) of 14.64, above the 50-day MA of 16.89, and above the 200-day MA of 15.47, indicating a bullish trend. The MACD of 0.44 indicates Negative momentum. The RSI at 63.86 is Neutral, neither overbought nor oversold. The STOCH value of 89.65 is Negative, not indicating any strong overbought or oversold conditions. Overall, these indicators collectively point to a Positive sentiment for NRC.

National Research Peers Comparison

Name	Overall Rating	Market Cap	P/E Ratio	ROE	Dividend Yield	Revenue Growth	EPS Growth
SPOK	73 Outperform	$232.80M	17.11	10.63%	9.67%	1.47%	11.33%
OPRX	64 Neutral	$118.39M	44.33	4.22%	―	24.19%	―
TBRG	57 Neutral	$226.64M	13.03	3.23%	―	3.75%	―
SLP	54 Neutral	$234.30M	127.44	-45.47%	―	13.09%	-745.95%
Sector *	51 Neutral	$7.86B	-0.30	-43.30%	2.27%	22.53%	-2.21%
NRC	46 Neutral	$399.65M	36.22	58.50%	2.52%	-3.50%	-37.46%
HCAT	45 Neutral	$85.36M	-0.94	-30.28%	―	4.64%	-17.17%

National Research Corporate Events

National Research Hits Record Recurring Contract Value Milestone

On March 4, 2026, NRC Health reported that its Total Recurring Contract Value surpassed $152 million, an all‑time high for the company and a 6% increase from the end of 2025. The figure also marked 13% year‑over‑year growth and reflects the amount of revenue expected over the next 12 months from renewable contracts.

Management said the milestone underscores growing confidence from health system partners and the deepening of long‑term relationships tied to its healthcare experience platform. The update, which does not represent complete results for the quarter ended March 31, 2026, signals strengthening recurring revenue momentum and reinforces NRC Health’s role in supporting customers’ growth and operational strategies.

The most recent analyst rating on (NRC) stock is a Sell with a $13.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on National Research stock, see the NRC Stock Forecast page.