National Healthcare Corp Reports Operating Results (10-Q)

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Nov 05, 2009
National Healthcare Corp (NHC, Financial) filed Quarterly Report for the period ended 2009-09-30.

National HealthCare Corporation principally operates long-term health carecenters and home health care programs. Their health care centers provide subacute skilled and intermediate nursing and rehabilitative care. National Healthcare Corp has a market cap of $494.4 million; its shares were traded at around $36.18 with a P/E ratio of 15.8 and P/S ratio of 0.8. The dividend yield of National Healthcare Corp stocks is 2.9%. National Healthcare Corp had an annual average earning growth of 2.3% over the past 5 years.

Highlight of Business Operations:

Total costs and expenses for the 2009 third quarter compared to the 2008 third quarter increased $6,442,000 or 4.4% to $153,559,000 from $147,117,000. Salaries, wages and benefits, the largest operating costs of this service company, increased $3,798,000 or 4.3% to $91,834,000 from $88,036,000. Other operating expenses increased $2,444,000 or 5.5% to $47,199,000 for the 2009 period compared to $44,755,000 in the 2008 period. Rent expense increased $198,000 or 2.5% to $8,032,000 compared to $7,834,000 in the 2008 period. Depreciation and amortization increased $117,000 or 1.9% to $6,335,000 from $6,218,000. Interest costs decreased $115,000 to $159,000.

Increases in salaries, wages and benefits are due to increased staffing due to the acquisition of a skilled health care facility (132 long-term beds), a 60-bed assisted living facility and five hospice locations ($1,686,000), increased costs for therapist services ($1,082,000), increased costs for homecare services ($1,033,000), and inflationary wage increases. Increases in other operating costs are due to costs associated with the recently acquired health care facility (132 long-term beds), a 60-bed assisted living facility, five hospice locations ($891,000), increased operating costs for homecare services ($806,000) and also an increase in professional liability expenses ($590,000).

Other revenues decreased $1,452,000 or a decline of 2.9% in the nine month 2009 period to $48,873,000 from $50,325,000 in the 2008 nine month period. Decreases in other revenues include decreased management and accounting services fees ($849,000), decreased interest income due to lower yield rates ($989,000), and decreased rental income ($630,000). Decreases in other revenues in the 2009 period over the 2008 period were offset in part due to greater earnings from our equity in unconsolidated investments (primarily from Caris HealthCare L.P. ($1,178,000).

Total costs and expenses for the 2009 nine months compared to the 2008 nine months increased $21,379,000 or 4.9% to $460,506,000 from $439,127,000. Salaries, wages and benefits, the largest operating costs of this service company, increased $12,546,000 or 4.8% to $274,435,000 from $261,889,000. Other operating expenses increased $7,880,000 or 5.8% to $142,588,000 for the 2009 period compared to $134,708,000 in the 2008 period. Rent expense increased $436,000 or 1.8% to $24,064,000 compared to $23,628,000 in the 2008 period. Depreciation and amortization increased $626,000 or 3.4% to $18,865,000 from $18,239,000. Interest costs decreased $109,000 to $554,000.

Investing Activities - Cash used in investing activities totaled $24,350,000 for the nine months ended September 30, 2009, as compared to $4,466,000 provided from investing activities for the nine months ended September 30, 2008. Cash used for property and equipment additions was $32,070,000 for the nine months ended September 30, 2009 and $34,367,000 in the comparable period in 2008. Investments in notes receivable totaled $8,327,000 in 2009 compared to $2,746,000 in 2008. Cash provided by net collections of notes receivable was $4,697,000 in 2009 compared to $4,674,000 in 2008. Collections of our investment in the cash fund in liquidation balance totaled $6,065,000 in the first nine months of 2009 compared to $22,830,000 in 2008.

Financing Activities - Net cash provided by financing activities totaled $1,203,000 in the nine months ended September 30, 2009 compared to $4,941,000 net cash used for the same period in 2008. Cash used for payments of debt totaled $2,000 and dividend payments to common and preferred shareholders totaled $16,455,000. In the prior year, cash used for payments of debt totaled $7,433,000, proceeds from debt totaled $20,500,000 and dividend payments to common and preferred shareholders totaled $14,592,000. Tax benefits from exercise of stock options provided cash of $3,602,000 in 2009 and $1,439,000 in 2008. In the current period, $14,179,000 of cash was provided by the issuance of common stock compared to $5,180,000 in the same period last year.

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