Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of National Research Corporation (NRC)

A company's Mission Statement, Vision, and Core Values aren't just HR boilerplate; they're the engine driving financial performance and strategic direction, and for National Research Corporation, a leader in healthcare experience solutions, this is a critical link.

In Q3 2025, the company reported revenue of $34.6 million and saw its Total Recurring Contract Value (TRCV)-the total value of all active, recurring client contracts-climb to $141.7 million, an impressive 8% year-over-year jump. Does a core value like Data-Driven Insights defintely map to that kind of growth, or is it just smart execution?

We need to understand the principles shaping their strategic moves, so let's unpack the core beliefs that are guiding National Research Corporation's market position and your investment thesis.

National Research Corporation (NRC) Overview

You're looking for a clear picture of National Research Corporation (NRC), and the takeaway is simple: they are a foundational healthcare intelligence firm that's successfully navigating a challenging market by doubling down on their subscription model's strength.

Founded in 1981 and operating as NRC Health, the company has spent decades evolving into a leader in healthcare experience improvement solutions, headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska. They use a subscription business model to provide data-driven insights to healthcare organizations across the United States and Canada. This model is defintely the backbone of their stability.

Their core services are designed to enhance the full spectrum of the healthcare experience, from patient and family satisfaction to employee and physician engagement. As of November 2025, their solutions are crucial for hospitals, health systems, and long-term care facilities looking to improve patient outcomes and optimize financial performance.

• Measure patient and resident experience.
• Analyze employee and physician engagement data.
• Provide market insights and healthcare analytics.
• Offer the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) program.

For the quarter ending September 30, 2025 (Q3 2025), the company reported total revenue of $34.6 million, with the trailing twelve months' revenue standing at $139.10 million.

Q3 2025 Financial Performance and Growth Drivers

The latest financial report for Q3 2025, released in late October, shows a mixed top-line picture but a very strong signal from their recurring revenue engine. While total revenue of $34.6 million was down year-over-year, the critical forward-looking metric, Total Recurring Contract Value (TRCV), showed exceptional momentum.

TRCV, which is the projected revenue under all renewable contracts for the next 12 months, grew 8% year-over-year to $141.7 million. This is the strongest TRCV growth National Research Corporation has seen since 2020. This growth is essentially the record-breaking part of their main product sales, confirming the health of their subscription-based solutions.

Here's the quick math on profitability and market growth:

• Adjusted EBITDA hit $10.9 million, an 11% year-over-year increase.
• Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 31%, up over four percentage points from the prior year.
• Cash flow from operations surged 46% year-over-year to $13.8 million.

This margin expansion and cash flow surge, despite a modest revenue dip, shows excellent operational execution and cost control. The growth in markets is driven by strong sales momentum, including multiple competitive takeaways, like a >$1 million TRCV expansion with a top-50 health system. They also announced a 33% increase to their quarterly dividend, payable in January 2026, which is a clear sign of management's confidence in future cash flows.

National Research Corporation: A Leader in Healthcare Intelligence

National Research Corporation, operating as NRC Health, is not just another vendor; it is a recognized leader in the specialized field of healthcare experience improvement solutions. Their success comes from a deep, singular focus on healthcare, which allows them to translate complex data into actionable insights for their clients. This is how they drive better patient outcomes and organizational efficiency.

The company's strategic focus on 'Human Understanding' is what sets them apart, helping healthcare organizations better understand, anticipate, and respond to the experiences of their patients and employees. Their subscription model, combined with a history of innovation and a commitment to data-centric solutions, makes them a sticky, high-value partner for major U.S. health systems. This is why their Total Recurring Contract Value continues to climb.

If you want to understand the investor sentiment behind these figures and the composition of their ownership, you should definitely check out Exploring National Research Corporation (NRC) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

National Research Corporation (NRC) Mission Statement

You're looking for the 'why' behind the numbers, and for National Research Corporation (NRC Health), it's all about their mission: to turn Human Understanding into meaningful, measurable action. This isn't corporate fluff; it's the core strategy that drives their recurring revenue model. In the third quarter of 2025 alone, the company reported a Total Recurring Contract Value (TRCV) of $141.7 million, a solid 8% year-over-year increase, which defintely shows their mission is resonating with clients. A mission statement like this isn't just a poster on the wall; it's the blueprint for how they allocate capital and generate those returns you care about.

For a healthcare intelligence firm, the mission acts as the filter for every investment decision, from new technology platforms to sales strategy. It directly links their purpose-improving patient and employee experiences-to their financial performance. If the mission fails, the subscription revenue streams dry up. It's that simple.

Component 1: Understanding Needs-The Data Foundation

The first critical component is a deep, empathetic understanding of patient, resident, and employee needs. NRC Health has been in this space for more than 40 years, building a massive research platform that allows them to capture the voice of the customer (VOC) in healthcare. This isn't just a survey; it's a comprehensive, real-time data collection engine.

Think of it this way: their mission starts with data. They need to know what to fix before they can sell the solution. This focus helps them serve over 10,000+ healthcare organizations, from major hospital systems to long-term care facilities. Here's the quick math: more accurate data leads to better insights, which locks in long-term, high-value contracts, which is why they returned a total of $28.1 million to shareholders through dividends and stock repurchases in 2025. You can learn more about how this translates to investor confidence here: Exploring National Research Corporation (NRC) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Component 2: Driving Measurable Improvement-Actionable Insights

The second component is translating that understanding into measurable action. An insight is worthless if a hospital system can't act on it to improve patient care or reduce staff burnout. This is where NRC Health's proprietary analytics tools and consulting services come in, providing a clear path from data point to operational change.

Their solutions must drive tangible results, such as improving patient satisfaction scores or increasing employee retention. They use their data to help clients achieve specific, quantifiable goals:

• Identify key drivers of patient churn.
• Benchmark performance against national peers.
• Optimize staffing models for better experience.

This focus on measurable outcomes is what makes their subscription model sticky. It's why their Total Recurring Contract Value grew to $141.7 million by the end of Q3 2025. If the insights weren't actionable, clients wouldn't renew, and that TRCV growth would stall.

Component 3: Ensuring Quality and Excellence-The Outcome

The final component is the commitment to delivering high-quality products and services that ensure excellence in the healthcare experience. This means continuous innovation in their platform, including the integration of new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance their data processing. They must stay ahead of evolving consumer expectations and regulatory complexity.

The market recognizes this commitment. For example, NRC Health was honored with the Best in KLAS 2025 Award for Healthcare Experience Management, an independent validation of their product quality and client success. This excellence in delivery translates directly to financial strength, as seen in their Q3 2025 Adjusted EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) of $10.9 million, an 11% year-over-year jump. Strong margins like that don't happen without a product that truly delivers on its mission.

National Research Corporation (NRC) Vision Statement

You're looking at National Research Corporation (NRC) to see if their stated purpose aligns with their financial performance, and honestly, the two are tightly linked. Their vision isn't just a feel-good statement; it's a clear roadmap for dominating a critical niche in healthcare. The core vision is centered on being the leading provider of experience management solutions in healthcare, which means they want to be the essential data engine for every hospital and health system in the US.

This vision is backed by real financial momentum. The company's Total Recurring Contract Value (TRCV) hit $141.7 million in Q3 2025, which is an 8% year-over-year increase and the strongest growth they've seen since 2020. That number tells you clients are buying into the vision for the long haul. This isn't a flash in the pan; it's a subscription business model built on sticky, high-value data. The strategy is simple: own the patient and employee experience data, and you own a key piece of the healthcare budget.

The vision is about market leadership, so the focus is on scaling their core value proposition. You can see how they're doing that in their operational metrics, like the Q3 2025 cash flow from operations, which surged 46% year-over-year to $13.8 million. That kind of cash generation provides the fuel for the innovation needed to maintain that leading position. They're defintely putting their money where their vision is.

The Mission: Turning Human Understanding into Action

The mission statement clarifies how they execute that grand vision: it's about turning human understanding into meaningful, measurable action. This moves them beyond simple surveying into the realm of strategic consulting, helping healthcare organizations actually use the data to improve. They are guiding improvements in healthcare experiences, which is a massive, complex, and necessary task.

This mission is built on three core pillars-insights, engagement, and enablement-which is how they differentiate themselves in a competitive market. Here's the quick math on why this matters to investors: better insights lead to better client outcomes, which strengthens retention. And they are retaining customers, with TRCV losses and down sells reduced by nearly 50% in Q3 2025. That's a direct link between their mission and their bottom line.

The company's focus on humanizing healthcare is a smart move, especially as health systems face increasing financial pressure and staff burnout. Their services help clients optimize performance, which is why their adjusted EBITDA grew 11% year-over-year to $10.9 million in Q3 2025. You can learn more about how these numbers stack up in Breaking Down National Research Corporation (NRC) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

Core Values: Client Focus and Data-Driven Innovation

The values are the guardrails for the mission, and for National Research Corporation (NRC), they boil down to a commitment to the client and a reliance on data-driven innovation. They know their success is tied to their clients' ability to use their data effectively. The key values that underpin their strategy include:

• Client Focus: Deeply understanding unique client needs.
• Data-Driven Insights: Providing accurate, reliable, and actionable data.
• Innovation: Continuously seeking new ways to improve healthcare.

This focus on innovation is now heavily tilted toward next-generation AI, which they are engineering exclusively for the healthcare sector to create a more human way to collect and analyze feedback. This is a necessary investment, as the healthcare market is facing challenges like regulatory complexity, and they need to stay ahead of the curve. They are committed to returning value, too, having returned a total of $28.1 million to shareholders through dividends and stock repurchases in 2025. That shows confidence in their future cash flow.

The integration of AI into their platform is a clear action tied to their 'Innovation' value. It helps their clients spend less time writing service recovery responses and more time relating to patients. This kind of enablement is what drives those big deals, like the TRCV expansion over $1 million they secured with a TOP50 health system in Q3 2025. The values aren't just words; they're the engine for their sales momentum.

National Research Corporation (NRC) Core Values

You need to know where a company is going, and more importantly, how they plan to get there. For National Research Corporation (NRC), a leader in healthcare experience improvement solutions, their core values aren't just aspirational posters; they are the operational principles that drive their financial and strategic outcomes. This isn't corporate fluff; it's a map for how they achieved a Total Recurring Contract Value (TRCV) of $141.7 million as of Q3 2025, an 8% year-over-year increase, which is a key indicator of future revenue stability. I defintely see these values translating directly into their recent performance.

The company's focus on humanizing healthcare is underpinned by a few core tenets. These principles guide their investment in data-centric solutions and their approach to client partnerships, which is particularly important as the healthcare industry shifts toward value-based care. You can dive deeper into the market perception and financial stability of the company by Exploring National Research Corporation (NRC) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Client Focus: Deepening Partnerships for Revenue Growth

Client Focus means more than just good service; it means being indispensable. For National Research Corporation, this value is demonstrated by their strong sales momentum and high client retention, which is the lifeblood of a subscription business model. Their focus is on delivering meaningful insights across the full spectrum of healthcare stakeholders, which directly translates to securing long-term contracts. They are winning competitive takeaways.

The financial results for Q3 2025 clearly show this commitment paying off. The TRCV growth to $141.7 million is the strongest growth seen since 2020. This growth was fueled by strong sales momentum, including:

• Securing a competitive takeaway with a top-50 system, resulting in a >$1 million TRCV expansion.
• Executing two cross-sells, each valued at approximately $1 million.
• Adding a new logo client with a contract value over $500,000.

The best quarterly cross-sell/upsell activity in six years confirms that existing clients are finding real value and expanding their relationship with the company. That's a sign of a truly sticky product.

Data-Driven Insights: Fueling the Healthcare Intelligence Engine

National Research Corporation's entire business model is built on providing data-driven insights. This core value is their competitive edge, moving beyond simple patient satisfaction surveys to integrating clinical, operational, and financial data. The goal is to deliver actionable insights that support quality improvement initiatives and value-based care programs for their clients.

The company is actively modernizing its technology platform, which is a clear, near-term strategic priority. This modernization includes the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance their data analytics capabilities, allowing healthcare providers to collect real-time feedback and make better-informed decisions. Here's the quick math: better data leads to better client outcomes, which in turn secures the recurring revenue stream that saw Q3 2025 revenue reach $34.6 million.

Innovation: Modernizing the Platform for the Future

Innovation, for a data company, means continuously seeking new and better ways to serve clients and improve healthcare. The company's focus on evolving its go-to-market model and modernizing its technology platform demonstrates a commitment to this value. They are not standing still.

A significant initiative is the ongoing investment in their cloud-based platform, which enables healthcare providers to manage patient feedback, post-discharge outreach, and employee engagement tools. This shift to a more scalable, AI-enabled platform is designed to amplify their impact and position National Research Corporation for sustained growth, strong margins, and lasting value creation, as outlined by leadership. The 11% year-over-year increase in adjusted EBITDA to $10.9 million in Q3 2025 suggests this focus on efficiency and innovation is already impacting the bottom line.

Integrity and Financial Stewardship: Returning Value to Shareholders

Integrity involves maintaining the highest ethical standards, but in a financial context, it also means exercising sound stewardship of resources and capital. The company's actions in 2025 show a strong commitment to returning value to shareholders, which builds long-term trust and demonstrates financial discipline.

In 2025, National Research Corporation returned a total of $28.1 million to shareholders through dividends and stock repurchases. This is a concrete action that shows confidence in their future cash flow. Specifically:

• The Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.16 per share, representing a 33% increase from the previous dividend.
• They repurchased 618,264 shares in the third quarter alone at an average price of $14.99 per share.

This aggressive capital return strategy, coupled with a cash flow from operations surge of 46% year-over-year to $13.8 million in Q3 2025, highlights a focus on operational efficiency and a commitment to their investors. Being efficient means doing things well while using no more time and resources than necessary.