What Happened?
Shares of behavioral health company Acadia Healthcare (NASDAQ: ACHC) jumped 6.6% in the morning session after Raymond James upgraded the stock from Outperform to Strong Buy and raised its price target.
The analyst, John Ransom, increased the price target to $39.00 from $25.00. This decision followed the company's solid first-quarter results and a modest increase in its 2026 financial forecast. Supporting this positive outlook, Acadia lifted its full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance to a range of $580 million to $615 million.
Additionally, the company raised its adjusted earnings per share expectations to a range of $1.35 to $1.60, signaling confidence in its operational performance for the remainder of the year.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
Acadia Healthcare’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 35 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 9% on the news that the company released a disappointing financial forecast for its upcoming second quarter that fell short of analyst expectations, overshadowing its first-quarter results.
The operator of behavioral healthcare facilities projected second-quarter revenue of approximately $842.5 million at the midpoint, which came in 2.7% below analysts' estimates. Furthermore, its adjusted earnings per share guidance for the quarter also missed Wall Street's expectations.
While Acadia's first-quarter revenue grew 7.6% year-on-year to $828.8 million and its adjusted earnings per share of $0.37 beat estimates, these results were not enough to outweigh the weak outlook. The company's adjusted earnings per share for the first quarter were down from $0.40 in the same period last year.
Acadia Healthcare is up 111% since the beginning of the year, and at $30.19 per share, has set a new 52-week high. Despite the year-to-date gain, investors who bought $1,000 worth of Acadia Healthcare’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at only $484.70.
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