Investment Analyst Initiates Hospital Operator Coverage with Sell Ratings

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Written by Scott Becker
Thursday, 05 June 2008
A Citi Investment Research analyst began coverage of hospital operator stocks and issued a ‘sell’ rating for them due to growing debt and lower patient commercial admissions, according to published reports. The analyst, Gary Taylor, gave his lowest rating on shares of several hospitals including Tenet Healthcare, Universal Health Services, Lifepoint Hospitals and MedCath, anticipating that they will continue to lose ground over the next year. Tenet was also hit with a downgrade by a Deutsche Bank analyst, who changed his rating from “buy” to “hold.” The hospital operator had received an upgrade to “outperform” from “neutral” by a Credit Suisse analyst just a few days earlier, according to published reports. The analyst said rising prices are likely to contribute to stronger revenues, and he pointed to first-quarter earnings from UnitedHealth and Wellpoint as evidence of the price growth.