Aveanna Healthcare, CareTrust REIT, Invesque and Sonida Senior Living reported first-quarter results on Thursday.

Aveanna Healthcare

Aveanna’s revenue was $466.4 million for the first quarter, compared with $450.5 million for the same quarter last year, an increase of $15.9 million, or 3.5%. The Atlanta-based company, however, also experienced a net loss of $32 million, compared with net income of $25.3 million in the first quarter of 2022.

CEO Jeff Shaner said the loss stems from continuing challenges in the labor market.

“As we’ve previously discussed, the labor environment represents the primary challenge we are aggressively pursuing in 2023 to help Aveanna resume the growth trajectory we believe our company can achieve,” Shaner said on Thursday’s earnings call.

To help attract caregivers, Aveanna has doubled pay rates for services in California, Texas and Oklahoma, retroactive to Jan. 1.

“Since the Oklahoma rate increase, we have doubled the number of caregivers hired per week in Oklahoma, demonstrating the impact rate increases have on our ability to attract caregivers at the right wage profile,” Shaner said.

For additional coverage of the earnings call, see McKnight’s Home Care.

CareTrust REIT

“Overall, we are pleased with the progress made to date towards our priorities for the year – returning to acquisitions, sourcing more off-market deals, expanding our operator bench and de-risking the portfolio through active asset management work – while maintaining a favorable leverage profile,” President and CEO Dave Sedgwick said in a press release issued in conjunction with the earnings call. 

Since the previous earnings call, he said Thursday, the San Clemente, CA-based real estate investment trust closed on the sale of three skilled nursing facilities and two senior living communities for a combined $47 million. 

“We sold out of a one-facility seniors housing relationship on May 1 for approximately $3 million. Today we have three facilities under contract to sell that are in various stages of the due diligence process and two other facilities on the market,” Sedgwick said.

One operator that as of February’s earning call had not paid rent since November made a full rent payment in March and a partial rent payment of $100,000 in April. To date, that company has paid no rent in May, Sedgwick said.

Chief Investment Officer James Callister said that “last year’s move to strategic lending activities” already had begun “to bear fruit in our current pipeline of acquisition opportunities.”

Chief Financial Officer Bill Wagner reported that, for the first quarter, CareTrust had net income of $19.2 million, or $0.19 per diluted weighted-average common share; normalized funds from operations of $35 million, or $0.35 per diluted weighted-average common share; and normalized funds available for distribution of $36.6 million, or $0.37 per diluted weighted-average common share. 

For additional coverage of the earnings call, see McKnight’s Senior Living.

Invesque

Invesque’s adjusted funds from operations per share increased 100% year-over-year in the first quarter, as its senior housing portfolio continued its recovery.

2022 and 2023 have been “transformational” for Invesque, Chairman  and CEO Scott White said.

“We continue to make strides repositioning our portfolio for future success and creating a portfolio of private-pay senior housing assets operated by some of the country’s best operators,” he stated in a press release issued in conjunction with Thursday’s earnings call.

As previously announced, on Feb. 27, the company entered into a purchase and sale agreement to sell eight skilled nursing facilities the company currently leases to SymCare. 

Regarding the company’s operating performance, Chief Investment Officer Adlai Chester remarked: “This quarter illustrates the outcome of our strategy to streamline our portfolio and focus on our strongest producing assets. Our portfolio included nearly 20 fewer properties compared to the first quarter of 2022, but our bottom-line results doubled, which was precisely the desired outcome.” 

Invesque reported funds from operations  of$0.12 per common share for the first quarter. The company reported adjusted funds from operations ( of$0.12 per common share for the quarter.

April 1, after the quarter ended, the healthcare real estate company entered into a 15-year lease with Chapters Living to manage three standalone memory care communities—two in Texas and one in Arkansas. Chapters, a new partner for Invesque, managed the portfolio under an interim management structure during April and received full licensure approval effective May 1. The communities previously were managed by Memory Care of America.

April 10, the company closed on the acquisition of a 34-unit memory care community in Carrollton, Texas. The community is being operated by Constant Care Management Co., pursuant to a long-term lease. Invesque previously had acquired the first mortgage on the community through a HUD note sale auction Dec. 5, The company said its investment is less than $90,000 per unit.

For additional coverage of the earnings call, see McKnight’s Senior Living.

Sonida Senior Living

Success for Sonida Senior Living in 2023 “will continue to be defined by three fundamental efforts: accelerated market expansion to generate positive cash flow from operations, a strengthened balanced sheet with a more attractive debt profile and, finally, portfolio expansion the strategic management and accretive real estate transactions,” Sonida Senior Living CEO Brandon Ribar said on Thursday’s earnings call. 

The company has focused on the first two efforts over the past six months, he added.

Weighted average occupancy for the company’s owned portfolio of 62 communities increased 220 basis points to 84 % compared with the first quarter of 2022 and increased 10 basis points sequentially year-over-year.

Ribar said the operating team delivered an eighth consecutive quarter of occupancy growth, coupled with a revenue per occupied room increase of 6.4% over the previous quarter. This was the strongest increase in the company’s recent history, he added

“The slight increase in occupancy is particularly noteworthy for two reasons,” Chief Financial Officer Kevin Detz said. “The first is that the historical trend of Q1 seasonality softening is returning to the industry, as seen in our recent peer filings; the second is that the company was able to achieve its occupancy goals despite a programmatic rollout of our resident rate increases.”

Resident revenue for the first quarter 2023 was $56.6 million compared with $50.8 million for the same quarter 2022. That’s an increase of $5.8 million, or 11.4%. The increase in revenue was primarily due to increased occupancy, increased average rent rates, and the acquisition of two communities in Q1 2022

Overall revenue from residents increased 11.4% year-over-year and increased 7.4% when excluding $2 million and $0.7 million of state grant revenue received in the first quarters of 2023 and 2022, respectively.

Detz said the company has completed the transfer of 18 Fannie Mae communities that was begun in 2020 to reduce Sonida’s debt. The transition of the final two communities in the first quarter resulted in a noncash gain on extinguishment of debt of $36.3 million, he said.

For additional coverage of the earnings call, see McKnight’s Senior Living.