Community Health Systems intends to divest several more hospitals this year, the company said Monday while announcing a steep first-quarter earnings decline.
CHS has 10 hospitals for sale and it expects to divest its investment in a four-hospital joint venture in Las Vegas in the second quarter, the company said.
It also is looking to get out of an unnamed nonhospital operation by divesting it by the third quarter, the company said.
That may not be all. “The company may also consider additional hospitals for disposition for which the operating results have not been excluded from this guidance,” the company said in its first-quarter earnings release.
Franklin, Tenn.-based CHS has 160 hospitals after completing the spinoff of 38 small and rural hospitals last month into an independent new company, Quorum Health Corp.
The company's first-quarter earnings were down significantly from the same period a year ago.
Investors hammered CHS on Tuesday morning after getting the company's earnings release following the close of trading on Monday. At 10:15 a.m. ET, CHS shares had plunged 15%, or $2.42 per share, to $13.32.
Income from operations decreased to $12 million, or 11 cents per share, in the first quarter from $92 million, or 79 cents, in the year-earlier period. Revenue increased about 2% to $5 billion from $4.9 billion.
Net income attributable to CHS shareholders was 10 cents per diluted share in the first quarter compared with 68 cents in the year-earlier quarter.
CHS said it plans to use $1.2 billion from the Quorum spinoff to pay down debt.
