AdaptHealth Corp. (NASDAQ:AHCO) Short Interest Up 22.5% in March

AdaptHealth Corp. (NASDAQ:AHCO) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 13th, there was short interest totaling 9,040,635 shares, a growth of 22.5% from the February 26th total of 7,377,638 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,767,075 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.1 days. Approximately 6.8% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Richard M. Cashin, Jr. acquired 820,528 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $9.73 per share, for a total transaction of $7,983,737.44. Following the acquisition, the insider directly owned 14,638,708 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $142,434,628.84. This represents a 5.94% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In the last quarter, insiders have acquired 2,494,518 shares of company stock valued at $24,352,291. Insiders own 1.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AHCO. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of AdaptHealth by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,768,599 shares of the company’s stock valued at $117,215,000 after acquiring an additional 491,106 shares in the last quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. boosted its holdings in AdaptHealth by 15.9% in the third quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. now owns 11,477,730 shares of the company’s stock worth $102,726,000 after purchasing an additional 1,572,835 shares during the period. Reinhart Partners LLC. increased its stake in AdaptHealth by 10.6% during the fourth quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 8,100,785 shares of the company’s stock valued at $80,684,000 after purchasing an additional 773,727 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in AdaptHealth by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,402,699 shares of the company’s stock valued at $63,773,000 after purchasing an additional 420,629 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of AdaptHealth by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,627,306 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,173,000 after purchasing an additional 19,998 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.67% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $13.00 target price on shares of AdaptHealth in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. Weiss Ratings downgraded AdaptHealth from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 25th. Leerink Partners lowered their price objective on AdaptHealth from $13.00 to $12.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Wall Street Zen downgraded AdaptHealth from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 28th. Finally, Zacks Research raised AdaptHealth from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $13.25.

AdaptHealth Price Performance

AHCO opened at $11.29 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.53 billion, a P/E ratio of -20.53, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.76. The company has a 50-day moving average of $10.17 and a 200-day moving average of $9.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 1.02. AdaptHealth has a 1-year low of $7.11 and a 1-year high of $11.75.

AdaptHealth (NASDAQ:AHCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 24th. The company reported ($0.76) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.34 by ($1.10). The company had revenue of $846.29 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $832.51 million. AdaptHealth had a positive return on equity of 3.42% and a negative net margin of 2.18%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.34 EPS. Equities analysts expect that AdaptHealth will post 0.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About AdaptHealth

AdaptHealth, Inc operates as a leading provider of home medical equipment (HME) and related services in the United States. The company focuses on delivering respiratory care, mobility solutions and bathroom safety products to patients with chronic and acute medical needs. Through its comprehensive service offerings, AdaptHealth aims to enhance quality of life and clinical outcomes for patients who require long-term support outside of a hospital setting.

The company’s respiratory portfolio includes products such as continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) devices, oxygen concentrators, ventilators, and associated supplies for patients with sleep apnea, COPD and other pulmonary conditions.