Ardent Health (NYSE:ARDT) Shares Gap Up After Earnings Beat

Ardent Health, Inc. (NYSE:ARDT)’s stock price gapped up prior to trading on Thursday after the company announced better than expected quarterly earnings. The stock had previously closed at $12.99, but opened at $14.65. Ardent Health shares last traded at $15.64, with a volume of 145,126 shares.

The company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.08. Ardent Health had a return on equity of 10.35% and a net margin of 1.22%. The company had revenue of $1.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.60 billion.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ARDT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Ardent Health from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Ardent Health from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, July 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $13.00 price objective on shares of Ardent Health in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Zacks Research raised shares of Ardent Health from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Ardent Health from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 6th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ardent Health currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $12.79.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its position in Ardent Health by 3.7% during the 1st quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 29,812 shares of the company’s stock worth $255,000 after acquiring an additional 1,072 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP increased its holdings in Ardent Health by 131.3% during the 2nd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,863 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 1,625 shares in the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC bought a new position in Ardent Health in the 2nd quarter valued at $57,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Ardent Health in the 3rd quarter valued at $61,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in Ardent Health by 4.2% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 241,052 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,063,000 after purchasing an additional 9,743 shares during the last quarter.

Ardent Health Trading Up 18.3%

The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $11.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $10.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 1.99. The company has a market cap of $2.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.58.

Ardent Health Company Profile

Ardent Health is a U.S. healthcare services company that operates hospitals, outpatient facilities and physician practices. Its services include emergency and acute care, surgery, cardiology, orthopedics, oncology, women’s health, behavioral health, rehabilitation, imaging and other specialty and primary care offerings.

The company serves patients through regional health networks and hospital campuses primarily in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and other U.S. markets. In addition to hospital-based care, Ardent operates outpatient clinics, urgent care locations and other facilities designed to provide services across different stages of the patient-care process.

Ardent Health was founded in 2001 and became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange in 2024.