MISSION VIEJO, Calif., Feb. 06, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Ensign Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: ENSG), the parent company of the Ensign™ group of skilled nursing, rehabilitative care services, home health, home care, hospice care and assisted living companies, today announced its operating results for the fourth quarter and full year 2018, reporting record GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.48 for the quarter and $1.70 for the year and record adjusted earnings per share of $0.54 for the quarter and $1.88 for the year ⁽¹⁾.

Highlights Include:

• GAAP earnings per share for the year was $1.70, an increase of 120.8% over the prior year, and adjusted earnings per share was $1.88, up 34.3% over the prior year⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾;
  
  
• GAAP earnings per share for the fourth quarter was $0.48, an increase of 128.6% from the prior year quarter, and adjusted earnings per share was $0.54, an increase of 35.0% over the prior year quarter⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾;
  
  
• Consolidated GAAP Net Income for the year was $92.4 million, an increase of 128.2% over the prior year, and consolidated adjusted Net Income for the year was $102.1 million, an increase of 38.3% over the prior year ⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾;
  
  
• Consolidated GAAP Net Income for the fourth quarter was $26.4 million, an increase of 135.2% from the prior year quarter, and adjusted Net Income was $29.4 million, an increase of 39.5% from the prior year quarter⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾;
  
  
• Total Transitional and Skilled Services segment income was $190.9 million for the year, an increase of 36.1% over the prior year, and was  $55.2 million for the quarter, an increase of 38.2% over the prior year quarter and 19% sequentially over the third quarter;
  
  
• Same store skilled services occupancy was 78.8%, an increase of 63 basis points over the prior year, and transitioning skilled services occupancy was 75.0%, an increase of 296 basis points over the prior year;
  
  
• Total Home Health and Hospice Services segment revenue for the year was up 20.0% over the prior year to $170.9 million and segment income for the year was up 32.5% over the prior year to $26.1 million⁽³⁾; and 
  
  
• Total Assisted Living Services segment revenue for the year was up 11.1% over the prior year to $151.8 million and adjusted EBITDAR for the year was up 9.1% over the prior year to $52.8 million.

1. See "Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Information".
2. Adjusted earnings per share and Consolidated Adjusted Net Income increased by 15.3% and 18.8%, respectively, over the prior year if we applied a 25% tax rate to both periods. Adjusted earnings per share and Consolidated Adjusted Net Income increased by 17.4% and 20.0%, respectively, over the prior year quarter if we applied a 25% tax rate to both periods.
3. Excludes the impact for the adoption of ASC 606.

Operating Results

“We are thrilled to report a record quarter as we achieved our highest adjusted earnings per share in our history,” said Ensign’s President and Chief Executive Officer Christopher Christensen.  “The improvement we have been expecting in many of our operations, especially in Texas and Utah, is now materializing and making a meaningful contribution to our performance. However, we have many operations across all of our different buckets in all our geographies that still have tremendous organic upside, even in some of our most mature markets,” he added.  He credited the local operational and clinical leadership teams and all of their field-based and Service Center partners for continuing their relentless focus on clinical and financial performance while they continued to integrate 148 transitioning and newly acquired operations into the organization. 

“Our other lines of business continue to quietly create significant value,” Christensen stated.  He noted that Cornerstone Healthcare, Inc., Ensign’s home health and hospice portfolio subsidiary, grew its segment revenue and income by 20.0% and 32.5%, respectively, over the prior year.  Similarly, he said that Ensign’s assisted living and independent living portfolio company, which provides senior living services in 12 states, grew its segment revenue and adjusted EBITDAR by 11.1% and 9.1%, respectively, over the prior year.  Collectively, these two business segments now represent 15.7% of Ensign’s consolidated revenue. “We are making progress in our evaluation of a long-term strategic opportunity involving our new venture businesses.  Just as with our real estate transaction in 2014, our goal has been, and will be, to ensure that these businesses will benefit our shareholders over the long run,” he added.

Management also provided its 2019 annual guidance with earnings of between $2.17 and $2.26 per diluted share and annual revenue between $2.29 billion and $2.35 billion.  Overall, the midpoint of this guidance represents a 19%, or $0.36 per share, increase from the midpoint of management’s annual earnings guidance for 2018. “We are very excited about the coming year and our guidance demonstrates our optimism for the future,” he said.

Chief Financial Officer Suzanne Snapper reported that, “Our liquidity remains strong with approximately $307.1 million of availability on Ensign’s $450 million credit facility, which also has a built-in expansion option, and 52 unlevered real estate assets that add additional liquidity.”  She also reported that, even after some significant acquisition activity in the quarter, the Company’s lease-adjusted net-debt-to-adjusted EBITDAR ratio decreased again to 3.77x at year end, down from 4.2x at the end of the prior year.  She attributed this trend to the fact that EBITDAR from transitioning and newly acquired operations has continued to grow. She also indicated that cash generated from operations was $210.3 million for the year, which was primarily driven by an increase in operating results, stronger collections and lower taxes.

A discussion of the company's use of non-GAAP financial measures is set forth below. A reconciliation of net income to EBITDA, adjusted EBITDAR and adjusted EBITDA, as well as a reconciliation of GAAP earnings per share, net income to adjusted net earnings per share and adjusted net income, appear in the financial data portion of this release.  More complete information is contained in the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018, which is expected to be filed with the SEC today and can be viewed on the company’s website at http://www.ensigngroup.net.

Quarter Highlights

During the quarter, the Company paid a quarterly cash dividend of $0.0475 per share of Ensign common stock. “We are pleased to announce our sixteenth consecutive annual dividend increase, which reflects our strong market position and continued commitment to return value to our shareholders,” Christensen commented.

In October, Ensign announced that its senior living portfolio company, acquired the real estate and operations of Villa Court Assisted Living and Memory Care, a 53-unit assisted living and 20-unit memory care facility located in Las Vegas, Nevada. “We are thrilled to expand our senior housing footprint in Las Vegas. It’s a market in which we anticipate growing as we rely on the talented leaders there that each seek to become the community of choice in their area,” Christensen added.

In November, Ensign announced that its affiliate acquired the real estate and operations of Rock Creek of Ottawa, a post-acute care retirement campus with 93 skilled nursing beds, 71 assisted living units and 24 independent living units located in Ottawa, Kansas. This acquisition represented the fourth transition from a non-profit seller in 2018, demonstrating Ensign’s continued success in working with non-profit operators that are looking to reposition their assets.

Also in November, Ensign acquired the real estate and operations of Creekside Transitional Care and Rehabilitation, a 139-bed skilled nursing and 21-unit assisted living facility located in Meridian, Idaho, and Bennett Hills Rehabilitation and Care Center, a 44-bed skilled nursing facility located in Gooding, Idaho.  These acquisitions bring the number of skilled nursing operations in Idaho to 10, further demonstrating Ensign’s strategy of developing strong clusters in each local healthcare market.

Ensign’s senior living portfolio company also acquired the operations of four assisted living facilities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas, including: Canyon Creek Memory Care, a 52-unit memory care facility located in Temple, Texas; Bridgewater Memory Care, a 52-unit memory care facility located in Granbury, Texas; Lakeshore Assisted Living and Memory Care, a 46-unit assisted living and 30-unit memory care community located in Rockwall, Texas; and Windsor Court Senior Living, a retirement community with 36 independent living units, 16 memory care units, and seven assisted living units located in Weatherford, Texas. 

Also during the quarter, Cornerstone Healthcare Inc., acquired the following: Alpha Nursing, a home health agency in Washington; Cornerstone Home Health and Hospice in Utah; and Sequoia Hospice in California.  “Each of these acquisitions are small agencies that we purchased from small business owners that were looking to exit the space.  We continue to see attractive growth opportunities like these and will opportunistically acquire when our leadership talent, geography and pricing align,” Christensen added.

Lastly, in January, the Company announced that it acquired the real estate and operations of Cedar Health and Rehabilitation, a skilled nursing facility with 120 skilled nursing beds located in Cedar City, Utah. “As is the case with all of our acquisition efforts, we pursued these operations because our local leaders see a pathway to meaningfully impact the quality of the healthcare services delivered to their residents and resulting occupancy improvements,” Christensen added. 

These additions bring Ensign's growing portfolio to 189 skilled nursing operations, 24 of which also include assisted living operations, 55 assisted and independent living operations, 23 hospice agencies, 24 home health agencies and seven home care businesses across sixteen states.  Ensign owns the real estate at 72 of its 244 healthcare facilities.  Mr. Christensen reaffirmed that Ensign continues to actively seek transactions to acquire real estate and to lease both well-performing and struggling skilled nursing, assisted living and other healthcare related businesses in new and existing markets.

2019 Guidance

Management provided guidance for 2019, with annual revenue guidance of $2.29 billion to $2.35 billion and annual earnings per share guidance of $2.17 to $2.26 per diluted share for 2019.  This guidance represents a 19%, or $0.36 per share, increase from the midpoint of management’s previous annual earnings guidance for 2018. Management’s guidance is based on diluted weighted average common shares outstanding of approximately 56.7 million and a 25% tax rate.  In addition, the guidance assumes, among other things, normalized health insurance costs, anticipated Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rate increases, net of provider taxes and acquisitions closed in the first half of 2019. It also excludes acquisition-related costs and amortization costs related to intangible assets acquired, share-based compensation and start-up losses.

Conference Call

A live webcast will be held Thursday, February 7, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time (1:00 p.m. Eastern time) to discuss Ensign’s fourth quarter and fiscal year 2018 financial results. To listen to the webcast, or to view any financial or statistical information required by SEC Regulation G, please visit the Investors Relations section of Ensign’s website at http://investor.ensigngroup.net. The webcast will be recorded, and will be available for replay via the website until 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time on Friday, March 1, 2019.

About Ensign™

The Ensign Group, Inc.'s independent operating subsidiaries provide a broad spectrum of skilled nursing and assisted living services, physical, occupational and speech therapies, home health and hospice services and other rehabilitative and healthcare services at 244 healthcare facilities, 23 hospice agencies, 24 home health agencies and seven home care businesses in California, Arizona, Texas, Washington, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Nevada, Iowa, Nebraska, Oregon, Wisconsin, Kansas, South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Wyoming. Each of these operations is operated by a separate, independent operating subsidiary that has its own management, employees and assets. References herein to the consolidated “company” and “its” assets and activities, as well as the use of the terms “we,” “us,” “its” and similar terms, are not meant to imply that The Ensign Group, Inc. has direct operating assets, employees or revenue, or that any of the operations, the home health and hospice businesses, the Service Center or the captive insurance subsidiary are operated by the same entity. More information about Ensign is available at http://www.ensigngroup.net.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:

This press release contains, and the related conference call and webcast will include, forward-looking statements that are based on management’s current expectations, assumptions and beliefs about its business, financial performance, operating results, the industry in which it operates and other future events. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "predicts," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will," "should," "would," "could," "potential," "continue," "ongoing," similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding growth prospects, future operating and financial performance, and acquisition activities. They are not guarantees of future results and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to materially and adversely differ from those expressed in any forward-looking statement.

These risks and uncertainties relate to the company’s business, its industry and its common stock and include: reduced prices and reimbursement rates for its services; its ability to acquire, develop, manage or improve operations, its ability to manage its increasing borrowing costs as it incurs additional indebtedness to fund the acquisition and development of operations; its ability to access capital on a cost-effective basis to continue to successfully implement its growth strategy; its operating margins and profitability could suffer if it is unable to grow and manage effectively its increasing number of operations; competition from other companies in the acquisition, development and operation of facilities; its ability to defend claims and lawsuits, including professional liability claims alleging that our services resulted in personal injury, and other regulatory-related claims; and the application of existing or proposed government regulations, or the adoption of new laws and regulations, that could limit its business operations, require it to incur significant expenditures or limit its ability to relocate its operations if necessary. Readers should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements and are encouraged to review the company’s periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Form 10-K, for a more complete discussion of the risks and other factors that could affect Ensign’s business, prospects and any forward-looking statements. Except as required by the federal securities laws, Ensign does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, changing circumstances or any other reason after the date of this press release.

Contact Information

Investor/Media Relations, The Ensign Group, Inc., (949) 487-9500, ir@ensigngroup.net.  

SOURCE: The Ensign Group, Inc.