Dive Brief:
- A group of analysts participating last week in the Nashville Health Care Council's yearly "Wall Street" panel named their top recommended healthcare stocks for 2016: HCA Holdings, Acadia Healthcare, and Centene, the Nashville Business Journal reports.
- Their picks were given in response to an inquiry by Community Health Systems CEO Wayne Smith, who was moderating the January 21 session.
- Among the four analysts there were two votes for HCA, one for Acadia and one for Centene, the Journal reported.
Dive Insight:
The analysts also indicated things should soon be looking up for investor-owned companies in the healthcare sector despite weak performaces so far this year in those and in the market in general.
The analysts took a generally optimistic outlook, and were not troubled HCA had seen a third-quarter earnings preview that triggered uncertainty in the fall, specifically targeting it as one most likely to stay strong this year.
HCA is set to announce its finalized 2015 earnings this week after previewing better-than-expected earnings for the year, the Journal said. The company's preview indicated earnings of $7.9 billion vs. its predicted $7.8 billion.