One-glance verdict
Within fair range
$238.66 our estimate vs market $224.84
6% below our estimate
Fundamentals snapshot
National HealthCare Corporation
NHC · ASE · Healthcare · Medical Care Facilities
Current price
$224.84
52-week range
$115.77 - $239.29
Market cap
$3.52B
Balance sheet
Healthy
20.15x Strong cushion
Net cash $178.78M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
2 Risks
3 rewards · 2 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 2.7% last year.
- Reward Returns 13.3% on equity, ahead of 50% of its peers.
- Risk Forward P/E (522.9x) is higher than trailing (25.3x) - earnings are expected to drop.
- Risk Stock trades 4.5% above its 5-year average P/E.
What this company does
National HealthCare Corporation
National HealthCare Corporation provides a wide range of services for seniors, operating everything from skilled nursing homes to assisted living communities and at-home care agencies. The company makes money by providing long-term housing, medical support, and daily living assistance to older adults and patients recovering from illness. Because an aging population creates consistent demand for these essential services, the company’s business can be more stable and predictable than companies in other industries.
How the company got here
National HealthCare Corporation (NHC) was started in 1971 by a doctor, Carl E. Adams, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. His original idea was to create a 'campus' where seniors could live and receive different levels of care as their needs changed over time. The company began with skilled nursing facilities, which are like hospitals for people who need long-term medical care, and then gradually added more services. Over the decades, it has grown to include a wider range of senior care options, mostly in the Southeastern United States.
What it actually does
NHC provides a variety of housing and healthcare services for older adults. Think of it as a family of services that support seniors at different stages of life, from living independently to needing round-the-clock medical attention. Their offerings include everything from therapy to help people recover from surgery to assistance with daily activities like bathing and meals. They also provide end-of-life comfort care through hospice services.
Inpatient Services
This is the largest part of NHC's business and brings in the most money. It includes their skilled nursing facilities, which provide 24/7 medical care and therapy for people recovering from an illness or surgery, or for those with long-term health conditions. This segment also covers assisted living facilities, for those who need help with daily tasks but not intensive medical care, and independent living communities for more active seniors. The customers are the residents and patients, but payment often comes from government programs like Medicare and Medicaid, or private insurance.
Homecare and Hospice Services
This is a smaller but important part of the company that provides care for people in their own homes. Homecare agencies send nurses or aides to help with medical needs or daily activities, allowing people to stay in a familiar environment. Hospice services focus on providing comfort and quality of life for individuals with terminal illnesses, rather than trying to cure the illness. For these services, the customers are the patients, with payments typically coming from Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance.
What management is betting on now
The company's leadership is focused on creating a seamless 'continuum of care,' making it easy for a person to move between their different services as their health needs evolve. They are also working to increase occupancy (the number of beds or units that are filled) in their facilities, which was a challenge for the whole industry. To grow the business, NHC is acquiring other companies and building new facilities in new areas. A major priority is also managing labor costs, such as reducing the use of expensive temporary staff, to improve profitability.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Loading price history…
Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q3
$28.55M
FY2024 Q4
$4.63M
FY2025 Q1
$33.12M
FY2025 Q2
$52.62M
FY2025 Q3
$56.49M
FY2025 Q4
$6.41M
FY2026 Q1
$52.89M
FY2026 Q2
$30.74M
Revenue
$408.02M
Net income
$40.32M
Diluted EPS
2.54
Operating cash flow
$43.27M
Free cash flow
$30.74M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$381.82M
Net income
$35.86M
Diluted EPS
2.27
Operating cash flow
$62.53M
Free cash flow
$52.89M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$386.51M
Net income
$24.85M
Diluted EPS
1.58
Operating cash flow
$16.81M
Free cash flow
$6.41M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$382.66M
Net income
$39.24M
Diluted EPS
2.50
Operating cash flow
$66.20M
Free cash flow
$56.49M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$374.91M
Net income
$23.72M
Diluted EPS
1.52
Operating cash flow
$62.82M
Free cash flow
$52.62M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$373.70M
Net income
$32.20M
Diluted EPS
2.07
Operating cash flow
$39.26M
Free cash flow
$33.12M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$369.35M
Net income
$6.08M
Diluted EPS
0.38
Operating cash flow
$12.79M
Free cash flow
$4.63M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$340.20M
Net income
$42.79M
Diluted EPS
2.73
Operating cash flow
$34.21M
Free cash flow
$28.55M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $238.66 vs current price $224.84
Our most-likely fair value is $238.66 a share — about 6.1% away from today's price of $224.84, so the stock currently looks fairly priced.
Is it drowning in debt?
Healthy
Net cash $178.8M - more cash than debt. Interest coverage 20.1x.
Net debt
$-178.78M
Interest coverage
20.15x
National HealthCare Corporation's profit covers its interest bill about 20.1 times over. which is stronger than most peers shown here and 2 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Healthy
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
NHC
BASELINE
National HealthCare Corporation
Total debt $31.41M Interest coverage 20.15x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $2.25B Interest coverage 53.24x +164% vs NHC Carries about 2.6x more debt cushion than NHC.
Total debt $5.49B Interest coverage 0.36x -98% vs NHC Carries about 55.4x less debt cushion than NHC.
Total debt $3.40B Interest coverage 10.92x -46% vs NHC Carries about 1.8x less debt cushion than NHC.
Total debt $1.57B Interest coverage -0.35x -100% vs NHC This peer has almost no interest-payment cushion compared with NHC.
Total debt $495.55M Interest coverage 7.62x -62% vs NHC Carries about 2.6x less debt cushion than NHC.
What you should know
The case for and against NHC
3 Rewards
2 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 2.7% last year.
-
Returns 13.3% on equity, ahead of 50% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 9/10 years.
Risks
-
Forward P/E (522.9x) is higher than trailing (25.3x) - earnings are expected to drop.
-
Stock trades 4.5% above its 5-year average P/E.
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
25.26x
Forward P/E
522.88x
P/B
3.14x
P/S
2.26x
EV/EBITDA
17.59x
PEG ratio
0.82x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
39.5%
Operating margin
12.0%
Net margin
9.0%
ROE
13.3%
ROA
5.8%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.03x
Current ratio
1.86x
Quick ratio
1.47x
Total debt
$31.41M
Total cash
$210.19M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$1.56B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
9.0%
EPS TTM
8.90
EPS 5Y CAGR
74.2%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$188.81M
Free CF TTM
$148.63M
FCF margin
9.5%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
1.2%
Payout ratio
29.1%
Last ex-div date
2026-09-30