Both Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal note that shares of CYH have plunged the 12 months prior by 75 percent, from a high in the mid-$60s. Ladenburg Thalmann upgraded Community Health Systems from a “not rated” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note on Monday, June 13th. The company has market capitalization of $1.36B. The Marion County Hospital District on Monday said that any new owner of CHS would be obliged to follow the terms of that existing lease. “18” said the company as a “Hold”.
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Company shares have received an average consensus rating of Hold for the current week Community Health Systems (NYSE:CYH): The stock opened at $10.56 and touched an intraday high of $13.28 on Friday.
The depressed stock has attracted investors, including a Chinese billionaire who earlier this month had accumulated 11-million shares and is now CHS’s largest shareholder with 9.9%. Citigroup’s Ralph Giacobbe has summed it up nicely, saying there isn’t a natural buyer for CHS among its publicly traded peers, which ended the second quarter with more than $15 billion of debt on its balance sheet. Zacks Investment Research cut shares of Community Health Systems from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 16th. Community Health Systems had a negative net margin of 7.55% and a positive return on equity of 2.10%. Revenue also declined by 6% to $4.6 billion.
Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,750 shares of the company’s stock worth $130,000 after buying an additional 939 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP purchased a new position in shares of Community Health Systems during the first quarter valued at about $157,109,000. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA increased its position in Community Health Systems by 240.9% in the second quarter.
As rumors swirl and published reports allege Community Health Systems is planning to sell its business, the system itself admitted in a statement Monday that they are “exploring a variety of options with financial sponsors, as well as other potential alternatives”. The Company operates through two segments: hospital operations and home care agencies operations.
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Shares of the Franklin, Tenn. -based company fell 1.6% in premarket trading after rising 16% at the end of last week on news of the possible sale.
