Brookdale Senior Living announced its February occupancy results, and it was better than we expected. Month-end occupancy has now increased for three straight months since November. At the end of February, occupancy was 80.8%, marking the seventh straight month that it has topped 80%, and up 20 basis points from the end of January. As you know, the winter months are usually terrible for census, and this year the strong flu has not helped. But Brookdale has succeeded, nonetheless.
Weighted average occupancy in February increased by 10 basis points to 79.3%, and that seems to be stuck in a holding pattern as it has hardly budged for six months. The share price jumped by 3.6% on the news on a day that the markets overall dropped significantly.
All this is happening amid the backdrop of a looming proxy battle where an activist shareholder has put forth a slate of six new Board members. As we have stated, it is a very solid slate of experienced executives. There has been no word on how Brookdale management will respond, other than acknowledging receipt of the notification. But we presume they are not happy…
