HCA - HCA Healthcare says Hurricane Ian prior year COVID volumes impacted Q3

• Hospital operator HCA Healthcare ( NYSE: HCA ) fell ~8% pre-market Thursday after the company reported declines in Q3 revenue and earnings and attributed the underperformance to the prior year's COVID volumes and Hurricane Ian that swept across Florida in September.
• Q3 included a $35M impact from Hurricane Ian on several Florida facilities before any potential insurance recoveries. The company also pointed out that year-over-year comparison was also impacted by higher COVID-19 volumes in the prior year period, when the pandemic led to 12.7% same-facility admissions compared to 5.2% in Q3 2022.
• Despite a ~2% YoY decline, revenue for the period exceeded Street forecasts to reach $15.0B while same facility equivalent admissions stood at ~905.5K, falling short of analyst estimates polled by Bloomberg.
• However, same facility equivalent admissions rose ~2.3% YoY ahead of the consensus while same facility rev. per equivalent admission declined ~3.5% YoY and missed estimates. The Nashville, Tennessee-based company reported 182 hospitals and 49,179 at the end of the period.
• Adj. EBITDA for the period fell ~10% YoY and missed estimates to stand at $2.9B, while net income crashed ~50% YoY to $1.1B as the prior period included more than $1.0B gains on sales of facilities.
• In the wake of HCA's ( HCA ) results, other hospital operators, Community Health Systems ( CYH ), Acadia Healthcare ( ACHC ), Universal Health Services ( UHS ), and Select Medical Holdings ( SEM ) are expected to come under scrutiny ahead of their quarterly data.
• Rival Tenet Healthcare ( THC ) fell after reporting its Q3 2022 results on Thursday after the closing bell.

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