The Ensign Group Slightly Beats Forecasts
The Ensign Group posted another solid quarter, beating its forecasts by a bit, but not by enough to get investors excited. The shares traded down by about 3.6% on a day that the overall market was up by about 2%. The 52-week range is $70.29 to $102.26 per share, and with the current value just under the high, investors may be thinking that there is not much room to go up in the near term. Year over year, quarterly revenues were up 24.3%, adjusted earnings per share were up 14.1% and occupancy keeps on rising as well. They purchased the operations of 19 nursing facilities during the quarter. Unlike most companies, Ensign continues to grow, and grow profitably. But it is not just the... Read More »
Brookdale: Has The Long-Awaited Turnaround Begun?
Late on April 10, Brookdale Senior Living reported its March occupancy results, and disclosed that preliminarily, the first quarter financial results looked to be better than originally forecast. The market pounced on the news that first quarter adjusted EBITDA would be “meaningfully” above previously issued guidance. Revenue was higher than expected while expenses were in line with fourth quarter expenses, meaning little inflationary cost pressures. The share price surged by more than 30%. Finally, some good news. Let’s hope this is not merely a case of under-promising and overperforming, because if the second quarter does not come in better, then what investors giveth they and taketh... Read More »
Mounting Troubles For Sonida Senior Living
When we read Sonida Senior Living’s recent fourth quarter earnings report, we had already heard that it contained the dreaded “going concern” caveat. While not surprising, what was surprising was how glowing the highlights were. Management “was thrilled with what our team has accomplished in Q4 and throughout 2022,” but five pages later it is disclosed that the company may run out of cash and fail to meet its obligations. Hmmm. Investors sent the share price tumbling by 40%. We were not surprised because in our November 2022 issue we stated that we thought the company would run out of money by April of this year based on its cash burn rate. We are now at the end of March, and cash... Read More »
More Trouble Brewing in Credit Markets
We had all heard that the first half of this year was going to see a spike in loan defaults, forced sales of properties and other signs of financial distress in the seniors housing and care sector. But we are not sure many people thought there would be one this big. We are talking about the TPG Real Estate and Sabra Health Care REIT joint venture involving 157 assisted living communities in 18 states operated by Enlivant, which is the former Assisted Living Concepts. This was not a great portfolio to begin with, and it consists of mostly small and older properties in secondary markets. Sabra purchased a 49% interest in the portfolio in January 2018, paying a hefty price to help the... Read More »
Some Good News For A Change
There has not been much good news out there, whether on the financing front, the deal volume front, or the census front. But some operators are actually kicking some butt these days, specifically Bloom Senior Living. When the pandemic began, this small operator had an average 83% occupancy across its portfolio of independent living, assisted living and memory care units. One year later it had plunged by 1,600 basis points to 67% and bottomed out in March 2021, like so many other providers. Just 12 months later, however, and not like many others, it had gained back 1,300 basis points to reach 80% in March 2022. Not quite to pre-COVID levels, but certainly a lot better than many other... Read More »Schedule a demo
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