Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of Amedisys (AMED -0.09%), a home health and hospice care provider, tumbled as much as 15% after reporting its fourth-quarter earnings results.
So what: For the quarter, Amedisys reported that net service revenue fell 2% to $362.9 million as earnings from operations dipped 53% to $0.23 from $0.49 in the previous year. Wall Street had been expecting just $0.22 in EPS, however, the net revenue consensus estimate of $373.3 million was decisively short. Looking ahead, Amedisys forecast 2013 full-year EPS of $0.60-$0.70 and total sales of $1.425 billion to $1.45 billion compared to expectations of $0.78 in EPS and $1.52 billion in revenue from analysts.
Now what: And that's why Amedisys' earnings report was one of the three can't-miss health-care events of the week! Amedisys' forward guidance is factoring in both bigger technological investments and also the 2% Medicare sequestration amount, which analysts seem to have forgotten about when formulating their estimates. Assuming the company can boost its operational efficiency, a boom in an aging population should see a dramatic rise in hospice needs over the next decade, which may be able to counteract any reductions in Medicare reimbursements. It's definitely a name worth keeping your eyes on!
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