What Happened?
Shares of healthcare services company The Ensign Group (NASDAQ: ENSG). jumped 12.9% in the morning session after the company reported mixed fourth-quarter 2025 results but provided an optimistic forecast for 2026 that overshadowed the short-term misses.
The healthcare services provider posted fourth-quarter revenue of $1.36 billion, marking a 20.2% increase year-over-year but falling short of analyst estimates of $1.50 billion. Similarly, its GAAP earnings per share of $1.61 came in below the consensus of $1.67. However, investors looked past the quarterly misses and focused on the company's upbeat forecast for the upcoming year. Ensign projected full-year 2026 revenue with a midpoint of $5.81 billion, which was 1.7% above analyst forecasts. More impressively, its earnings guidance of $7.51 per share at the midpoint beat expectations by 9.4%. This strong guidance signaled management's confidence in continued growth, driving the positive market reaction.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
The Ensign Group’s shares are not very volatile and have only had 4 moves greater than 5% over the last year. Moves this big are rare for The Ensign Group and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 10 months ago when the stock dropped 5.8% on the news that President Trump criticized the Federal Reserve's approach to interest rate cuts, warning that the pace was slow and could hinder economic growth.
Trump's comments added pressure to an already sensitive market, raising concerns about political interference in monetary policy. Meanwhile, Fed Chair Jerome Powell maintained a cautious stance the previous week, highlighting the difficulty of balancing the dual mandate of steady employment and price stability amid the escalating trade tension. Investor sentiment was further dampened by the absence of constructive progress in trade negotiations, especially US-China relations which took a turn for the worse in the previous week. Overall, the outlook seemed more unclear heading into the first quarter 2025 earnings season, as a combination of hard to predict monetary policy and unresolved trade tensions weighed on business confidence.
The Ensign Group is up 12.4% since the beginning of the year, and at $195.54 per share, has set a new 52-week high. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of The Ensign Group’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $2,333.
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