Waystar climbs more than 8% as Reuters reports early sale exploration two years after IPO

Shares of Waystar (WAY) climbed more than 8% on Sept. 15 after Reuters reported, citing seven anonymous sources, that the healthcare payments software company is exploring strategic options including a sale — preliminary talks the wire service cautioned could still change or never produce a deal.

The immediate move says as much about the past year as about the report. Reuters calculated that Waystar was worth about $5.2 billion after Tuesday's gain — a snapback that only partly repairs a slide that had erased nearly a quarter of the company's market value through Monday. The stock had fallen 24% this year before the report, caught in a broader pullback in software shares.

According to the report, Waystar has hired Evercore to advise on a process that is at an early stage, citing two of the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. A separate source said Barclays is also advising the company. Waystar and Barclays declined to comment; Evercore did not immediately respond to a request for comment, according to Reuters. The wire service stressed that the plans could change and a sale may not materialize.

Whatever the outcome, the business itself has kept growing. In its July 29 second-quarter release, Waystar reported revenue of $319.7 million, up 18% from a year earlier, net income of $40.9 million, and adjusted EBITDA of $136.7 million. The company also raised its full-year guidance, to revenue of $1.276 billion to $1.294 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $535 million to $545 million.

Waystar was created by the 2017 merger of revenue-cycle firms Zirmed and Navicure, then taken public in 2024 by backers that included EQT, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Bain Capital. EQT remains the largest holder with a 13% stake, ahead of CPPIB at 10% and BlackRock Institutional Trust at 8%, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters.

The company has pitched itself as a healthcare software business — technology that automates administrative work rather than a people-heavy services operation — a distinction aimed at the higher multiples software commands. The stock rose from $20 to a $45 peak in 2025, then retreated as investors worried that advances in artificial intelligence could upend software vendors, Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a July note, according to Reuters.

Analysts were quick to game out buyers. RBC Capital kept an Outperform rating and a $44 price target, with analyst Ryan Halsted naming Oracle the obvious first name among potential strategic buyers and UnitedHealth Group's Optum another candidate — though RBC cautioned that Oracle is already stretched by AI spending and debt, and that Optum could draw regulatory scrutiny, as reported by a Stocktwits summary of the bank's note reprinted on TradingView. Evercore ISI called the report surprising but said exploring a deal makes sense after the stock's roughly 24% decline, keeping an Outperform rating and a $28 target.

For now, everything rests on seven anonymous sources: Reuters' report names no bidder and cites no company confirmation of the talks. A take-private would test whether private buyers — or a strategic acquirer — see more value in Waystar than the market has been willing to pay.