July 29, 2003 Community Health Systems (CYH)
I was busy today. Getting to work the futures were positive, the market opened up...and then when I took a look at the end of the day it all turned around. The decreasing interest rates has ignited this market from its lows....could it be that the interest rate pressure on the record bond offerings by the Treasury to pay off increasing Federal deficits will drive interest rates higher and squelch the rally? I hope not.

Anyhow, scanning the lists for something that might fit our investment style, I came up with Community Health Systems (CYH). CYH had a great day today closing at $19.79 up $1.76 on the day or 8.89%.

According to CNN.Money, Community Health Systems "...is a non-urban provider of general hospital healthcare services in the United States. CHS owns, leases or operates 63 hospitals, geographically diversified across 22 states." Another medical stock!

Morningstar shows steady growth in revenue from $855 million in 1998, $1.08 billion in 1999, $1.33 billion in 2000, $1.69 billion in 2001, $2.2 billion in 2002 and $2.32 billion in the trailing twelve months.

On July 23rd, 2003, according to NYTimes on the Web (Business Wire): CYH reported results for the second quarter ending June 30, 2003. Net operating revenues totaled $657.3 million a 23.9% increase compared with $530.6 million for the same period last year. Net income increased 26.2% to $30.6 million or $.30/share compared with $24.2 million or $.24/share in 2002.

According to Morningstar.com, free cash flow has improved from a ($33 million) deficit in 2000, to $71 million in 2001, $182 million in 2002, and $127 million in the trailing twelve months.

The balance sheet shows a lot of debt...only $19.6 million in cash and $582.3 million in current assets compared to $320 million in current liabilities and $1.36 billion in long term liabilities. Morningstar also reports $2.3 billion in long-term assets as they report it....but the long-term debt load and the large amount of current liabilities...imho....and not being an accounting whiz....is not as pretty a picture as some other stocks we have examined.

Yahoo.com 'profiles' shows that CYH has a market cap of $1.95 Billion with 98.2 million shares outstanding and 53.0 million that float.

The p/e is a reasonable 16.89 in light of the solid growth...but there is only $.26/share in cash. There are 3.35 million shares out short representing 5.01 days of average trading....a bit of a bullish statistic..(again imho).

The stock is growing strongly and certainly has been spinning off some nice free cash that can be directed at paying down debt if needed...not my favorite pick on this site but certainly we need watch this stock....maybe even buy some shares...if this is the kind of company you are looking for.

Regards to all of my friends. Please drop by soon and leave some comments here or drop me a line with any questions or comments at bobsadviceforstocks@lycos.com

Bob