Hospital survey weakened ‘dramatically’ in March, says TD Cowen

TD Cowen analyst Gary Taylor reports that 305 hospitals surveyed by the firm report only 1.0% year-over-year March revenue growth, which is “far weaker” than February’s 11% growth reported. Excluding a 2.9% calendar headwind in March, the 3.9% adjusted growth was still 340 basis points weaker than February’s 7.3% rate and this “represents a resounding first test of our 2H24 trend-moderation thesis” that the firm expects will propel managed care stock performance versus hospitals once past April’s “enormous” 4.8% calendar tailwind, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Publicly traded hospital companies include Community Health (CYH), HCA Healthcare (HCA), Tenet Healthcare (THC) and Universal Health (UHS). Publicly traded healthcare insurers include CVS Health’s (CVS) Aetna, Centene (CNC), Cigna (CI), Elevance Health (ELV), Humana (HUM), Molina Healthcare (MOH) and UnitedHealth (UNH).