Hospital stocks on Monday experienced no bounce back from the defeat of the Affordable Care Act early Friday. A poor start to the second-quarter earnings season continues to hurt the sector's stock prices.
Hospital chains HCA, Community Health Systems and Universal Health Services each missed earnings forecasts last week, as did physician staffing giant Mednax.
None of those stocks has received a boost from investors following the Senate defeat early Friday morning of legislation to repeal the ACA and dramatically reduce funds to states that had expanded Medicaid under the ACA.
HealthSouth Corp., the giant rehabilitation hospital and home health chain, also posted flat earnings for the second quarter, reporting results after the close of markets Monday.
The Birmingham, Ala.-based company posted net income of $79.4 million on revenue of $981.3 million for the quarter compared with net income of $81.2 million on revenue of $920.7 million in the year-earlier quarter.
HealthSouth's shares closed down 17 cents per share on Monday to $42.56.
That's just two cents more from where HealthSouth closed last Thursday before the Senate vote.
The Senate action provided no solace for HCA, CHS or UHS, either.
HCA's shares were traded at $86.09 Monday before it announced flat earnings for the second quarter and lowered its earnings guidance for the rest of 2017.
Those shares closed Monday at $80.34, just 38 cents above Thursday's close and the Senate vote.
CHS shares lost 24 cents Monday, closing down 3% to $7.15. Those shares stood at $9.68 Monday before the 150-hospital chain announced earnings estimates for the quarter that showed a $131 million net loss.
UHS had flat earnings and lowered earnings guidance last week as its stock price fell from $122.90 on Tuesday before posting the performance to $110.36 before bottoming out on Friday.
