Community Health Systems, Inc. (CYH) Stock

Community Health Systems, Inc. (CYH) is a Healthcare stock trading at $2.96 (as of 2026-08-25), with a market capitalization of $417.39M and a trailing P/E of 1.7. Figures are sourced from first-party U.S. SEC EDGAR filings and market data.

Community Health Systems, Inc. owns, leases, and operates general acute care hospitals in the United States. It offers general acute care, emergency room, general and specialty surgery, critical care, internal medicine, obstetrics, diagnostic, psychiatric, and rehabilitation services, as well as skilled nursing and home care services. The company also provides outpatient services at primary care practices, urgent care centers, free-standing emergency departments, ambulatory surgery centers, imaging and diagnostic centers, retail clinics, and direct-to-consumer virtual health visits. As of December 31, 2021, it owned or leased 83 hospitals, including 81 general acute care hospitals and two stand-alone rehabilitation or psychiatric hospitals with an aggregate of 13,289 licensed beds. The company was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee.

Understand Community Health Systems, Inc.: how it makes money

Community Health Systems owns and operates acute care hospitals and outpatient clinics across the U.S., earning revenue from inpatient stays, surgeries, ER visits, and diagnostics paid by insurers and government programs. The inpatient acute care engine sets the volume, while payer mix and specialist labor costs determine how much of that volume converts to operating profit.

Revenue is set by local patient population and fixed payer reimbursement rates; the entire profit swing depends on whether nursing and specialist labor costs outrun that revenue, making CYH fundamentally a cost-management story against rising wages.

Business quality (Mixed): A necessary local utility with structurally capped pricing power, currently in a volume and rate headwind that the market is pricing as closer to terminal decline than a cyclical trough.

Valuation: At 2× earnings, CYH trades 93% below the Healthcare Services average (25×). Note: the low multiple may reflect one-time earnings items.

Bull case

Procedure volumes stabilizing: Management flagged that June surgeries turned positive year over year, a leading indicator that the 2025 elective-deferral trough is rolling off and inpatient volumes can re-accelerate.
Outpatient rate tailwind incoming: Proposed 2027 outpatient reimbursement rates could deliver approximately 5% net revenue improvement after the 340B drug-rebate repayment, providing a concrete EBITDA boost in the back half.
Priced for near-bankruptcy: At a P/E of 1.7x versus the Healthcare Services industry average of 25x (a 93% discount), the stock leaves very little room for further multiple compression if volume and rate stabilizations materialize as suggested.

Bear case

Specialist fees compressing margin: Medical specialist fees rose 19%, with anesthesia and radiology identified as the key pressure points, directly attacking the 14% operating margin from the cost side with no offsetting rate lever.
Collections cycle deteriorating: Payer audits and record requests are stretching accounts-receivable days, converting a revenue figure that looks stable on paper into a slower cash conversion and higher working-capital drag.
Uninsured volume without pay: Growing uninsured utilization is rising care-delivery costs without corresponding revenue, a structural drain that explains the 72-percentage-point gap between the 86% gross margin and the 14% operating margin and will widen if the uninsured mix keeps climbing.

Valuation — source: SEC EDGAR (first-party)
Price	$2.96
Market Cap	$417.39M
P/E Ratio	1.7
EV / EBITDA	5.5
Price / Sales	0.03
FCF Yield	-44.3%
DCF Value (model)	$504.14
DCF Upside vs Price	16931.8%

Profitability & Growth — source: SEC EDGAR
Revenue (TTM)	$12.48B
Net Margin	4.1%
Revenue Growth (YoY)	-9.8%
EPS Growth (YoY)	-75.8%
FCF Growth (YoY)	-500.0%

Financial Health — source: SEC EDGAR
Altman Z-Score	1.05 (distress)
Piotroski F-Score	9/9 (strong)

Valuation vs Sector & Industry
Stock P/E	1.7
Sector P/E (Healthcare)	21.9
Industry P/E (Healthcare Services)	25.4
vs Sector	-92.4%
vs Industry	-93.5%

Smart-Money Activity — SEC Form 4 / 13F / Congressional disclosures
Top Institutional Holder	Silver Rock Financial LP ($3.23B)
Institutional Holders Tracked	10

Company
Sector	Healthcare
Industry	Healthcare Services
CEO	Kevin J. Hammons
Employees	45,000
Country	US
IPO Date	2000-06-09

Related Companies (Healthcare Services; 8 comparable companies)

Data as of 2026-08-25.

Figures sourced from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC EDGAR) filings and market data. Not personalized investment advice.