Brookdale Senior Living held a second-quarter earnings call Friday morning, and National Healthcare Corp. reported second-quarter financials electronically.
National Healthcare Corp.
National HealthCare Corp. reported earnings of $26.8 million in the second quarter.
Net operating revenues and grant income for the quarter were $300.65 million, compared with $282.58 million for the same quarter a year ago, for an increase of 6.4%.
“Excluding the governmental stimulus income and supplemental Medicaid payments from various states, as well as the three skilled nursing facilities in Missouri in which we exited operations in February 2024, same-facility net operating revenues increased 8% during the second quarter of 2024 compared to the same period a year ago,” according to a press release from NHC.
Occupancy continues to be a “primary area of management focus,” the Murfreesboro, TN-based company noted in a filing with the SEC. The overall census in owned and leased SNFs for the second quarter was 89%, compared with 87.9% for the same period a year ago. Overall, for the first half of the year, occupancy for the company’s owned and leased SNFs was 88.7%, compared with 87.7% for the first half of 2023.
For the first six months of this year, NHC’s average Medicare per diem rate for SNFs increased 5% as compared with the same period in 2023.
As of Aug. 1, NHC affiliates operate for themselves and third parties 80 SNFs, 26 assisted living communities, nine independent living communities, three behavioral health hospitals, 34 home care agencies and 30 hospice agencies.
After the quarter ended, NHC completed the acquisition of White Oak Senior Living’s 15-property portfolio of continuing care retirement communities and nursing homes in North Carolina and South Carolina.
The company on Friday announced a quarterly dividend of $0.61 per common share to shareholders of record as of Sept. 30, payable on Nov. 1.
Brookdale Senior Living
Brookdale Senior Living has “demonstrated powerful positive progress toward full recovery from the impact of the pandemic, and with each quarter, we have and are continuing to deliver sustainable growth while building a significant runway for future revenue and operating income increases,” President and CEO Lucinda “Cindy” Baier stated in a press release issued in conjunction with Friday’s earnings call.
The second quarter brought “continued steady and sustainable year-over-year gains,” according to Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Dawn Kussow.
During the second quarter, resident fee revenue grew 4.2% over the same quarter in 2023.
“This revenue increase was despite a 2.1% or 1,100 unit reduction in capacity compared to the prior year quarter as a result of owned and leased community dispositions since the beginning of the prior year period,” Kussow said on Friday’s earnings call.
Compared with the first quarter of 2024, however, resident fees decreased primarily due to the decrease in revenue per occupied room, or RevPOR, due to an occupancy mix shift to more independent living residents and lower skilled nursing revenue, the company said, and the disposition of owned communities since the beginning of the prior period, which resulted in $1.6 million less in resident fees during the second quarter of 2024
Consolidated revenue per available room, or RevPAR, grew 6.4%, which Kussow said was in line with the operator’s previously provided guidance range. She added that this marked Brookdale’s 10th consecutive quarter of triple-digit year-over-year occupancy increases.
Since the end of the quarter, Brookdale extended its 24-community triple-net lease with Omega Healthcare Investors. The lease now goes until 2037.
“As part of this amended lease, Omega has agreed to make available a pool of up to $80 million of new landlord-funded CapEx funding over the life of the lease; $30 million of this pool will be available prior to July 2028 on a rent-free basis,” Baier said. “The terms of the amended lease will meaningfully benefit both our cash flow and our liquidity over the life of the lease, and most directly, in the near term.”
For additional coverage of the Brookdale earnings call, see McKnight’s Senior Living.
