Tenet Healthcare Posts Loss, Outlook Weak; Shares Fall 7%

(RTTNews) - Hospital operator Tenet Healthcare Corp. (THC) on Monday posted a loss for the fourth quarter, hurt largely by lower in-patient admissions at its hospitals. Moving ahead, the company detailed a weak outlook for the current quarter, sending its shares down by 7 percent in the after-hours trading.

The Dallas-based company reported a loss of $97 million or $0.98 per share, compared to a profit of $61 million or $0.61 per share a year ago.

Excluding one-time charges of $1.35 per share, adjusted earnings for the quarter dropped to $0.35 per share from $1.03 per share last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.34 per share for the quarter.

Operating revenues for the quarter rose to $5.03 billion from $4.47 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $4.82 billion for the quarter.

Chief Executive Trevor Fetter said, "Similar to our results in the third quarter, we experienced pressure on lower acuity inpatient hospital admissions and continued to drive increases in higher-acuity admissions."

Revenues in the hospital operations and other segment increased 5.0 percent to $4.42 billion. On a same-hospital basis, net patient revenue increased 0.7 percent to $3.99 billion, driven by a 0.3 percent increase in adjusted patient admissions and a 0.3 percent increase in net patient revenue per adjusted admission.

Looking forward to the first quarter, Tenet expects earnings of $0.05 to $0.54 per share on revenues of $4.7 billion to $4.9 billion. Analysts currently estimate earnings of $0.56 per share on revenues of $4.72 billion.

For the full year, the company expects earnings of $1.18 to $2.25 per share on revenues of $18.8 billion to $19.2 billion. Analysts currently estimate earnings of $2.15 per share on revenues of $19.06 billion.

THC closed Monday's trading at $25.50, up $1.68 or 7.05% on the NYSE. The stock, however, slipped $1.55 or 6.08% in the after-hours trading.