What happened
Rehabilitation-care specialist Encompass Health (EHC 2.65%) easily surmounted the hump of Hump Day. Following its latest earnings release, published after market hours on Tuesday, the stock traded up by nearly 3% on Wednesday. What helped greatly was the twin beats notched by the company.
So what
For its fourth quarter of 2022, Encompass Health posted just under $1.14 billion in revenue, which was 9% higher on a year-over-year basis. Non-GAAP (adjusted) net income slipped, however, by 9% to nearly $89 million, or $0.88 per share.
Both headline figures beat analyst estimates, albeit not by much. Still, a beat is a beat, and this was sufficiently encouraging for investors. On average, prognosticators following the stock were anticipating revenue of $1.12 billion and adjusted, per-share net income of $0.84.
In the earnings release, Encompass Health chalked up its improvements largely to pure volume. It pointed out that discharges were up by 7% during the quarter.
Now what
This means a full-steam-ahead strategy for Encompass Health. The company quoted its CEO Mark Tarr as saying, "Our value proposition and our operating strategy have been further validated and we remain highly optimistic about the long-term prospects of our business."
Encompass Health proffered guidance for the entirety of 2023. For the year, the company believes it will earn $4.68 billion to $4.76 billion in revenue, with adjusted earnings per share landing at $2.87 to $3.16. Both figures would represent improvements over the 2022 results of $4.35 billion and $2.85, respectively.
