Health Care Services

Merger Activity remained steady this week with six new deals announced and four deals closing. Deal Statistics: Total Number of Deals Closed in 2010 85 Total Number of Deals That Did Not Complete in 2010 5 Total Number of Pending Deals Cash Deals 52 Stock Deals 12 Stock & Cash Deals...

DaVita's (NYSE: DVA) refinancing efforts are shaping up well according to a Deutsche Bank report. Based on what Deutsche Bank currently knows: DVA priced a $1.55 bln 2-tranche Sr. Note offering at rates slightly better than the Notes it is redeeming; the offering was upsized $100M; Also, DVA has...

DaVita's (NYSE: DVA) refinancing efforts are shaping up well according to a Deutsche Bank report. Based on what Deutsche Bank currently knows: DVA priced a $1.55 bln 2-tranche Sr. Note offering at rates slightly better than the Notes it is redeeming; the offering was upsized $100M; Also, DVA has...

Morgan Stanley is assuming coverage of Athenhealth (NASDAQ: ATHN) with an Under-weight rating. With ATHN shares trading at over a 50% premium to its HCIT peer group, Morgan Stanley views the risk-reward as less attractive than other names in our healthcare services coverage. ATHN's premium...

IPC The Hospitalist Company, Inc. (Nasdaq: IPCM) announced today that it has acquired Premier Hospitalists, Inc., headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. The practice represents an annualized volume of approximately 20,000 patient encounters. The Premier physicians will join the existing IPC...

Express Scripts (Nasdaq: ESRX) has completed the spinoff of its Rx Outreach business unit to create a new independent, nonprofit charitable organization with the mission of improving access to prescription medicines for low-income, uninsured Americans and working families. Michael Holmes, former...

Recently, we initiated our coverage on Kinetic Concepts, Inc. (KCI) with a Neutral rating.   Kinetic reported an adjusted EPS of $1.01, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.97 and the year-ago quarter's $0.98. Net sales (including rental income) of the company increased 1.3% to $497.8 million...

Deutsche Bank has published a research report for Quest Diagnostics Inc. (NYSE: DGX) following meetings with the company's management. In the report, Deutsche Bank writes "We recently hosted a mtg at Quest Diagnostics to discuss operating trends & strategic outlook. While NT growth remains...

Res-Care, Inc.'s (RSCR) share price has entered into oversold territory with a stochastic value of 18.39. The Zacks Consensus Estimate on the company's earnings for year ending 2010 increased by 3 cents over the past two months to $1.12 per share. Res-Care, Inc is a Zacks #2 Rank (“Buy”) company. ...

Shares of RehabCare Group, Inc. (NYSE: RHB) are lower on the session by 1.45%, currently trading at $19.72. The stock has been moving largely lower over the past six months, off of a recent high near $31.87. Options traders are betting that shares may be at a short-term bottom and are buying calls...

Jefferies & Co. has published a research report on Healthcare for the week, including its listing of top picks. In the report, Jefferies writes "We saw window dressing in many healthcare service stocks last week as the third quarter came to an end on Thursday. Looking ahead, we anticipate...

Below are the top research services' stocks on the NYSE and the NASDAQ in terms of return on equity. The trailing-twelve-month return on equity at Landauer Inc (NYSE: LDR) is 32.32%. LDR's gross margin for the same period is 63.48%. The trailing-twelve-month return on equity at Gen-Probe Inc (...

Lincare Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: LNCR) today announced that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.20 per common share. The dividend is payable on October 29, 2010 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on October 15, 2010.

DaVita Inc. (NYSE: DVA) announced earlier today that it intends to offer, subject to market and other conditions, $1.45 billion principal amount of senior notes. DaVita intends to use all of the net proceeds from the offering, together with a portion of the proceeds from initial borrowings under...