Tenet posts 1Q loss, adjusted results beat view

The company said Tuesday that its loss amounted to 6 cents per share in the three months ended March 31 compared with a profit of $75 million, or 16 cents per share, a year earlier.

But excluding a charge to cover the cost of litigation over employment issues and other items, the company would have earned 4 cents per shares, beating Wall Street expectations.

Analysts, who exclude items from their forecasts, had expected the Dallas-based company to earn a penny per share, according to a survey by Thomson Financial.

Revenue rose to $2.37 billion from $2.22 billion a year ago, and slightly higher than the $2.35 billion that analysts had expected.

But Tenet shares fell 35 cents, or 5.4 percent, to $6.12 in afternoon trading. Some analysts discounted earnings related to previous quarters, while others said Tenet's results beat expectations no matter how the items were counted.

Tenet has spent millions to upgrade equipment in its hospitals and has lobbied doctors to send their patients to its hospitals.

In the first quarter, admissions at hospitals open at least a year rose 1 percent, the second straight quarterly gain after a long string of declines, and they continued to rise in April.

But admissions numbers were mixed. Much of the gain came from Medicare and Medicaid managed-care patients, while admissions from more-lucrative employer-sponsored managed care fell 3.7 percent.

Outpatient visits fell 1.1 percent on a same-hospital basis, which the company blamed on increasing competition from physician-owned facilities.