Five Star Senior Living Soars
Shares of Five Star Senior Living have soared by more than 60% this year, leaving everyone guessing. Right after all the restructuring was completed at year end between Five Star Senior Living and its landlord, now recently re-named Diversified Healthcare Trust, Five Star’s shares have taken off. Two points to remember, though. Five Star just doled out about 26.5 million shares to Diversified and its shareholders to remove working capital liabilities. And, last October 1 they completed a 1-10 reverse stock split. That is important because now that the shares are trading at over $6.00 per share, for comparison purposes, that would be 60 cents per share four months ago. It just shows... Read More »
Is Ageism Dead?
Young people flock to see septuagenarians perform because they are rock stars. But aren’t all 70-somethings rock stars in some one’s mind? Asking if Ageism is dead might seem like a funny question. We see ageism every day. But last week I was fortunate enough to go to a sold-out Billy Joel concert at Madison Square Garden. I was expecting to see an average age close to 60, since most of Billy Joel’s hits were from the 1970s, back when I was a teenager. And I remember them well. But I was shocked to see so many people in their 20’s, 30’s and 40’s. For one 20-something I met, it was his fifth time seeing Billy Joel. He played all his hits, from the 1970s, and when they finally... Read More »
Seniors Housing Rates: Actual vs. Asking
For years, NIC MAP has been presenting quarterly changes in seniors housing asking rates, but it is now trying to get beyond that and get the actual rental rates. That will add a lot more needed transparency. As many of you know, NIC is working hard to develop its database of actual rents in seniors housing as opposed to the “asking” rents that have been used in their NIC Map numbers for years. This is very important because not until the market sees the actual rents communities are getting will we have a better understanding of the extent of price discounting in various markets. We have been a little vocal about the asking rent number because when times are tough, like they... Read More »
Negative Operating Margins for SNFs?
Always be careful about terminology in health care, and make sure you understand what things mean, like operating margin. It is always important to understand the definitions of certain terms, especially when it comes to health care. There has been a lot of news lately about how the median “operating margin” for skilled nursing facilities nationally has now sunk below zero. I have to admit, this drives me crazy. The implication is that for the median nursing facility, it is operating at a breakeven level….from operations. Operations are usually defined as labor, food, maintenance, utilities, basically everything that is needed to “operate” the facility. As I said last week, if half... Read More »
Cornerstone Healthcare Files For Bankruptcy Protection
Cornerstone Healthcare, an operator of skilled nursing facilities in the Pacific Northwest, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The CEO, Will Masterson, announced the reorganization in a statement filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Western District of Washington that listed lender and lessor issues as the reason for it. Operations across the portfolio weren’t great leading up to the bankruptcy, but they certainly could have been worse. The portfolio includes 14 SNFs and one assisted living community in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, with total capacity of 1,508 beds. Occupancy was 78% based on that capacity. In the year to date through September 2019, the company generated more... Read More »Schedule a demo
Gain access to the best healthcare and long-term care investment intelligence, data, and analysis.
