The S&P Healthcare Services Index has increased by 8.6% over the last three months, significantly outperforming the S&P 500 (a 6.4% increase over the same period), according to the September 2015 Healthcare Sector Update from Duff & Phelps. The best-performing sectors were healthcare staffing (up 26.4%), other services (up 19.1%), and emergency services (up 15.5%). The worst-performing sectors were assisted living (down 23%), psychiatric hospitals (down 17.2%), and diagnostic imaging (down 13.5%).
The current median LTM revenue and LTM EBITDA multiples for the healthcare services industry overall are 1.6x and 12.6x, respectively. The sectors with the highest valuation multiples include: HCIT (3.7x LTM revenue, 20.0x LTM EBITDA), healthcare REITs (12.8x LTM revenue, 16.4x LTM EBITDA), and emergency services (3.7x LTM revenue, 27.6x LTM EBITDA).