The healthcare field, in general, is doing fairly well right now, but if there’s one thing healthcare requires to work to its best, it’s buildings. Even a tent-based healthcare operation needs land in which to sink its tent poles, and that makes Medical Properties Trust (NYSE:MPW) a fairly solid operation. In fact, it shot up over 14% in Thursday morning’s trading thanks to some new guidance.
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Medical Properties, which serves as a healthcare real estate investment trust (REIT), increased its guidance for Fiscal Year 2023, noting that its third-quarter earnings dropped less than what Wall Street projections were looking for.
Better yet, over the next year, Medical Properties expects to bring in as much as $2 billion in extra liquidity over the course of the next year. Earlier consensus expected Medical Properties would see a normalized FFO per share of $1.55. Medical Properties, meanwhile, now expects between $1.56 and $1.58 per share.
That’s certainly good news for investors, assuming it pans out. However, those are just projections, and ultimately, projections aren’t always accurate. Further, there’s another issue staring Medical Properties in the face: a class action lawsuit is currently mounting, led by Bronstein, Gewirtz and Grossmann, LLC.
The reports note that investors who lost over $200,000 will have an opportunity to lead said class action lawsuit. The suit alleges that “…defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company’s business, operations and prospects.,” among other issues.
Is Medical Properties Trust a Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on MPW stock based on three Buys, three Holds, and four Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. Furthermore, the average MPW price target of $7.83 per share implies 55.2% upside potential.
