One of the nation’s largest home health providers, LHC Group (Nasdaq: LHCG), bucked overall market trends and saw its stock rise in September, according to the most recent Home Health Index from mergers and acquisition firm Stoneridge Partners. It was the second month in a row that LHC Group led its peers in share price performance.
In addition to LHC, the Index tracks the performance of two other major publicly traded providers of Medicare home health services, Amedisys (Nasdaq: AMED) and Almost Family (Nasdaq: AFAM). It tracks the stock prices of these companies over time and compares them to the S&P 500.
After seeing a 7.5% increase in stock price over the month of August, LHC’s stock price increased 3.4% in September, the Index shows.
Almost Family posted the largest decline in September, of 9.6%, while Amedisys fell 1.7%.
The month marked a reversal for Almost Family, which posted an overall share price increase in August even as markets were tanking. The marketed plummeted on fears that the Chinese economy could be faltering as well as continued uncertainty over factors such as an interest rate hike in the United States.
September saw a return to relative stability. The S&P was down 2.6% for the month, meaning that with a 2.7% decline, the overall Home Health Index was roughly aligned.
Taking a larger view, home health companies have been on a tear—the Index posted an all-time high at the end of July, beating a record set in September 2008. It now has declined about 4% from that new July benchmark. It is up 74% on a year-over-year basis.
The Index also tracks the performance of Addus (Nasdaq: ADUS), but considers the company separately because it does not draw much of its revenue from Medicare. Addus experienced an even better month than LHC, with an 8.4% increase in share price.
View the full analysis from Stoneridge Partners.
Written by Tim Mullaney
Companies featured in this article:
Addus, Almost Family, Amedisys, LHC Group, Stoneridge Partners LLC
