The Ensign Group kept its steady deal flow coming with the acquisition of a 74-bed skilled nursing facility in Des Moines, Iowa. This makes six properties in Iowa for Ensign, which leased the facility to its Midwest-based subsidiary, Gateway Healthcare. Occupancy was just 74%, but that is typical of Ensign acquisitions. The Iowa deal is similar to the company’s acquisition of a 100-unit assisted living/memory care community in Las Vegas, Nevada, which we detailed in the April issue of The SeniorCare Investor. That property could also improve its census, which stood at 45% at the time of the sale. This tendency of Ensign to acquire value-add properties (at the pace it has been acquiring) most likely resulted in the company’s Q4:16 earnings miss, when its EPS declined 14.3% year over year. We wonder if we will see a pause in turnaround transactions this year.
The Ensign Group Shores Up Its Iowa Skilled Nursing Presence
