Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACHC) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACHC) saw a significant growth in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,350,000 shares, a growth of 20.5% from the February 29th total of 2,780,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 538,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 6.2 days. Currently, 3.7% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACHC has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $94.00 price objective on shares of Acadia Healthcare in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Acadia Healthcare from $77.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Barclays assumed coverage on Acadia Healthcare in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $100.00 target price on the stock. TheStreet upgraded Acadia Healthcare from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their target price on Acadia Healthcare from $86.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Acadia Healthcare presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $91.22.

Insider Activity at Acadia Healthcare

In related news, Director Wade D. Miquelon sold 2,203 shares of Acadia Healthcare stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.39, for a total transaction of $188,114.17. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 46,074 shares in the company, valued at $3,934,258.86. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 2.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Acadia Healthcare

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Acadia Healthcare by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,861,427 shares of the company’s stock valued at $689,065,000 after purchasing an additional 30,296 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Acadia Healthcare by 2.1% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,537,922 shares of the company’s stock valued at $529,991,000 after purchasing an additional 152,783 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Acadia Healthcare by 0.3% during the third quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 3,058,916 shares of the company’s stock valued at $215,072,000 after purchasing an additional 10,062 shares during the period. Viking Global Investors LP boosted its stake in shares of Acadia Healthcare by 24.2% during the fourth quarter. Viking Global Investors LP now owns 2,800,350 shares of the company’s stock valued at $217,755,000 after purchasing an additional 545,137 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Acadia Healthcare by 0.9% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,563,638 shares of the company’s stock valued at $204,168,000 after purchasing an additional 22,019 shares during the period.

Acadia Healthcare Stock Up 1.1 %

NASDAQ ACHC opened at $79.22 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The company has a fifty day moving average of $81.68 and a two-hundred day moving average of $77.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -316.87, a PEG ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 1.33. Acadia Healthcare has a 52 week low of $66.49 and a 52 week high of $87.77.

Acadia Healthcare (NASDAQ:ACHC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The company reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $742.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $727.60 million. Acadia Healthcare had a negative net margin of 0.74% and a positive return on equity of 11.21%. Acadia Healthcare’s quarterly revenue was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.70 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Acadia Healthcare will post 3.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Acadia Healthcare Company Profile

Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc provides behavioral healthcare services in the United States and Puerto Rico. The company develops and operates acute inpatient psychiatric facilities, specialty treatment facilities comprising residential recovery facilities and eating disorder facilities, comprehensive treatment centers, and residential treatment centers, as well as facilities offering outpatient behavioral healthcare services for the behavioral healthcare and recovery needs of communities.