What Happened?
Shares of healthcare staffing company AMN Healthcare Services (NYSE:AMN) jumped 6% in the afternoon session after Truist Securities reiterated its 'Buy' rating on the company. The Wall Street firm pointed to a potential recovery in the international travel nursing segment as a key driver for future growth. An analyst at Truist noted that improvements in the visa process for healthcare professionals could provide a meaningful boost to AMN's performance. This comes after a significant drop in employment-based (EB) visa recipients in recent years, which has impacted the availability of international nurses. While forecasting the international business remains challenging, Truist sees the potential for recovery in this area as a source of upside for the company.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
AMN Healthcare Services’s shares are very volatile and have had 29 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 4 days ago when the stock dropped 3.1% as several negative developments weighed on the sector. Weakness in managed care providers was a significant factor, with companies like Elevance Health and Humana seeing declines due to an analyst downgrade and a lost lawsuit regarding Medicare bonus payments, respectively.
Additionally, some pharmaceutical and biotech companies experienced sharp drops following unfavorable news; for instance, Sarepta Therapeutics plunged after a report indicated another patient death tied to its experimental gene therapy, and GSK's blood cancer drug dosage was voted against by the FDA advisory committee. Broader market sentiment, including concerns about rising costs and inadequate pricing for 2025 plans among health insurers, also contributed to the downward pressure on healthcare equities.
AMN Healthcare Services is down 19.5% since the beginning of the year, and at $19.77 per share, it is trading 70.9% below its 52-week high of $68.05 from July 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of AMN Healthcare Services’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $370.57.
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