Ardent Health Partners, Inc. - ARDT STOCK NEWS

Ardent Health (NYSE: ARDT) announced that seven of its facilities have been named among Top Teaching Hospitals and Top Rural Hospitals by The Leapfrog Group, one of the most competitive healthcare awards in America. The recognized facilities include four Top Teaching Hospitals: Heart Hospital of New Mexico, Hillcrest Hospital South, Hillcrest Medical Center, and Seton Medical Center Harker Heights; and three Top Rural Hospitals: Hillcrest Hospital Pryor, UT Health Carthage, and UT Health Pittsburg.

Out of nearly 2,400 hospitals considered, only 134 were selected as Top Hospitals across different categories. The award evaluates various aspects of hospital performance, including infection rates, safer surgery practices, maternity care, and medication error prevention capabilities.

Ardent Health (NYSE: ARDT) announced that nine of its facilities earned an 'A' Hospital Safety Grade from The Leapfrog Group. The grades are based on over 30 performance measures related to patient safety. 81% of Ardent's eligible facilities earned an 'A' or 'B' grade, significantly outperforming the national average of 56%. The recognized facilities include medical centers in New Jersey, Oklahoma, Idaho, and Texas. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade evaluates preventable medical errors, infections, and injuries, with grades updated biannually.

Ardent Health (NYSE: ARDT) reported strong Q3 2024 results with total revenue increasing 5.2% to $1.45 billion. Net income reached $26 million ($0.19 per share), while Adjusted EBITDA grew 15.3% to $98 million with margin expansion of 50bps to 6.7%. The company saw a 3.8% increase in adjusted admissions and 0.9% growth in net patient service revenue per adjusted admission. Based on strong performance, Ardent raised its full-year 2024 guidance, increasing the Adjusted EBITDA midpoint by 2% and improving revenue outlook to $5.8-5.875 billion.

Ardent Health (NYSE: ARDT) announced its management team's participation in three upcoming investor conferences. The team will attend the Stephens Annual Investment Conference on November 19 in Nashville, featuring a fireside chat at 10:00 a.m. ET, the Citi 2024 Global Healthcare Conference on December 3 in Miami, and the Bank of America Securities Leveraged Finance Conference on December 4 in Boca Raton.

Live audio webcasts of fireside discussions will be available on Ardent Health's Investor Relations website, with replays accessible for 90 days. The management team will also conduct one-on-one meetings with registered investors at each conference.

Ardent Health (NYSE: ARDT) has scheduled its third quarter 2024 financial results announcement for Wednesday, November 6, 2024, after market close. The company will host a conference call and webcast on Thursday, November 7, 2024, at 9:00 a.m. ET to discuss the results and conduct a Q&A session. The webcast and presentation materials will be accessible through Ardent's investor relations website. A replay of the teleconference will be available until November 14, 2024.

Ardent Health has partnered with Qventus to optimize its robotics program and drive strategic surgical growth using AI-powered solutions. Qventus' Perioperative Solution intelligently markets operating room (OR) time to surgeons based on strategic objectives and personalized patterns, ensuring optimal surgery scheduling. This approach has delivered a 7x annualized ROI for Ardent.

The solution addresses common OR efficiency challenges, such as underutilization and misutilization of capacity. It prioritizes strategic cases, empowers surgeons to release unused block time early, enables precision open time marketing, and provides actionable market insights. Ardent chose Qventus for its ability to deliver significant ROI quickly and analyze market data for customized insights.

This partnership aims to improve patient access to timely surgeries across Ardent's U.S. communities while driving strategic growth for the health system.

Ardent Health (NYSE: ARDT) has been added to the Russell 3000® Index and Russell 2000®, effective September 23, 2024, as part of the quarterly U.S. Russell Index Initial Public Offering (IPO) update. This inclusion signifies Ardent's automatic membership in the appropriate growth and value style indexes.

Ardent's President and CEO, Marty Bonick, expressed satisfaction with this development, viewing it as an opportunity to increase awareness of Ardent's growth story and expand its investor base. He emphasized the company's focus on delivering sustainable growth and value while building a consumer-focused ecosystem of care.

The Russell indexes, widely used by investment managers and institutional investors, serve as benchmarks for approximately $9 trillion in assets. This inclusion represents a significant milestone for Ardent Health, potentially increasing its visibility in the investment community.

Ardent Health (NYSE: ARDT) has successfully repriced its term loans, reducing the interest rate by 50 basis points from Term SOFR plus 3.25% to Term SOFR plus 2.75%. This amendment to the term loan credit agreement also eliminates the credit spread adjustment. The maturity and other terms remain largely unchanged. This strategic move is expected to reduce Ardent's borrowing costs and generate annual interest expense savings of approximately $5 million.

CFO Alfred Lumsdaine stated that this repricing enhances free cash flow conversion and provides additional flexibility for executing capital allocation priorities. The optimized cost of capital is aimed at facilitating efficient investment in high-growth opportunities as Ardent continues to expand its consumer-focused healthcare delivery model and create long-term shareholder value.

Ardent Health (NYSE: ARDT) has appointed Dave Styblo as senior vice president of investor relations. Styblo, with over 20 years of investment experience, will oversee Ardent's investor relations program and serve as the primary liaison with investors, analysts, and financial partners. His background includes roles as a sell-side analyst at Jefferies focusing on healthcare services and managed care stocks, and as an independent investor relations advisor to healthcare companies.

Styblo's appointment comes as Ardent begins its journey as a public company. Alfred Lumsdaine, Ardent Health's CFO, expressed confidence that Styblo's deep experience and industry knowledge will be valuable in building strong relationships and communicating Ardent's story to the investment community.