The volatility in the broader stock market that's causing health systems to review their investment strategies also can be found in the prices for publicly traded hospital companies.
More volatility could come as the rest of the largest for-profit chains release their earnings this week.
One of the companies whose stock has performed well this year is Tenet Healthcare Corp. Its stock price has climbed nearly 50% to trade in the low $20s recently, up from about $16 a share at year-end. Tenet and its largest shareholder, Glenview Capital Management, last month signed a governance agreement that ended a battle the two had been waging ahead of the company's annual meeting.
Community Health Systems' shareholders have been on a roller-coaster of sorts. Its shares were recently valued at less than $4, down from $4.48 at the end of 2017. But this year the price climbed to more than $6 a share for a time only to give up those gains in a matter of weeks.
Hospital giant HCA Healthcare has seen its shares rise modestly this year, trading in the $95 range as of April 26, up from the beginning of the year when it traded near $90 a share and down from earlier in 2018, when it was trading above $100 per share. The company recently made a move to buy its first health system in years, six-hospital Mission Health, based in Asheville, N.C.
Universal Health Services' stock price is close to flat for the year, in the single digits on a percentage basis last week, trading at about $120 per share, after reporting disappointing earnings for the quarter ended March 31.
