This column is for investors willing to take more risk and potentially receive more reward.  The stocks mentioned in this column are not recommended to buy or sell.  They're brought to your attention so you can investigate them further to determine if they fit your risk profile.  Most of the stocks will have less than $1 billion of market capitalization, have more volatility than other stocks, and oftentimes no earnings.  And some will have tremendous stories.

December 19, 2008 - MedAssets, Inc. (MDAS-NASDAQ) provides technology-enabled products and services that deliver solutions to improve operating margin and cash flow for hospitals and health systems. Its technology-enabled solutions are delivered primarily through company-hosted or ASP-based software supported by enterprise-wide sales, account management, implementation services, and consulting.

The Spend Management segment offers a suite of technology-enabled services that help its customers to manage their non-labor expense categories. The company provides its services to approximately 125 health systems, approximately 2,500 acute care hospitals, and approximately 30,000 ancillary or non-acute provider locations. MedAssets, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia.

While this is still a small company (market cap of $763 million), there's plenty of interest in the stock. 11 analysts cover it. Their average estimate for earnings for the fourth quarter is 17 cents a share, almost double the 9 cents a share in the same quarter last year. For the full year, analysts see $ .54, well above the 44 cents of 2007. For 2009, they predict 60 cents. For the next 5 years, analysts expect annual earnings growth to average 20.39%.

Revenues are growing even faster. They're forecast to be $78.97 million for this quarter (ends December 31). That's well ahead of the $53.92 million in the fourth quarter of 2007. For the full year, analyst see $274.6 million, up from $209.55 in 2007. In 2009, they predict $349.73 million.

The stock started trading late last year, got to $23.99 and has pretty much followed the market down, though in the last week or so, it's up almost 30%. It hit a low of $9.91 on November 21. It's about 50% higher than that now, only a month later. Can you say volatile?

Some more numbers: Trailing P/E is 587. Forward P/E is 23.5. Price to Sales is 3.02. Price to Book is 2.01. Operating margin for the last 12 months was 13.13% while Profit margin was 1.87%. Return on equity was 2.44%. There's total debt of $265.34 million for a Total debt to equity ratio of .71. Current ratio is .585. Book Value per share is $6.95. There are 53.89 million shares outstanding and float of 21.61 million. Insiders own 59.90% of the stock. Institutions own 36.20%. There is no dividend.

MedAssets offers a service that every hospital needs: tracking revenues from each patient and tracking costs of non-employee items. With sales increasing noticeably, the market likes what MDAS has to offer. There are a couple of red flags however. The first is the low current ratio. The second is the high volatility of the stock price. If you're going to spend more time with MDAS, and then buy it, be sure to remember that volatility comes with the stock.

Company Web site: www.medassets.com

- Ted Allrich