Healthcare

Patient Care

39 investable US stocks · data to Saturday, October 24, 2026

Acquirer's Multiple percentile today45th percentile

Dearer than in 73% of quarters since 1999Its usual range since 1999 is the 23rd to 53rd percentile (the middle 80% of quarters), with a median of the 37th. Lower is cheaper: the 10th percentile is cheaper than 90% of the investable US market; the 50th is the middle.

Is it cheap because returns are depressed?

The industry is dear against its own past, and even though returns on assets are depressed (lower than in 88% of quarters). Free cash flow yield is in its usual range. A low multiple can be warranted when returns on assets are low, and a high one when they are high, so the multiple reads best next to returns and free cash flow, each against the industry's own history.

Over- or under-earning?

Earning about normally

Return on assets ranks at the 53rd percentile of investable US stocks, against a median of the 54th and a low of the 29th since 1999. That is close to its usual level, so today's multiple is about right on a normalized basis. If earnings normalize, the multiple would likely fall: from the 45th percentile today (about the middle of the market) to around the 38th (cheaper than 62% of investable US stocks), judging by where it sat in past quarters when returns were at their usual level. If returns fell to their low, it would be around the 52nd (about the middle of the market).

Percentile	Today	Returns normal	Returns at low
Return on assets (higher is better)	53rd	54th (median)	29th (low)
Acquirer's Multiple (lower is cheaper)	45th	38th	52nd

Patient Care's return on assets as a percentile, quarterly since 1999. The shaded band is its usual range; the dashed line its median.

Percentiles among investable US stocks. Return on assets is operating income over total assets, trailing 12 months. The last two columns show where it sat in past quarters when returns were within 7.5 points of their median (67 quarters) and of their low (6). The past, not a forecast.

Against its own history

Each chart is the industry's median stock as a percentile of all investable US stocks, quarterly since 1999. For the Acquirer's Multiple and debt to equity, lower is better. The shaded band is its usual range (the middle 80% of quarters); the dashed line is its long-run median; the dot is today. Green shading marks the better end of each scale and red the worse, and today's dot takes the colour of where it sits.

Acquirer's MultipleDearer than usualPercentile of enterprise value ÷ operating income: lower is cheaper. Dearer than in 73% of quarters since 1999.

Free cash flow yieldUsual rangePercentile of free cash flow yield: higher is a bigger yield. Lower than in 58% of quarters since 1999.

Shareholder yieldUsual rangeDividends plus buybacks, as a percentile: higher is a bigger yield. Higher than in 64% of quarters since 1999.

Dividend yieldUsual rangePercentile of dividend yield: higher is a bigger yield. Lower than in 59% of quarters since 1999.

Return on assets, 5-yrWeaker than usualPercentile of five-year return on assets: higher is better. Lower than in 88% of quarters since 1999.

Debt to equityMost debt on recordPercentile of debt to equity: lower is less debt. More indebted than in 90% of quarters since 1999.

Company sizeLarger than usualPercentile of market cap: higher is larger. Larger than in 77% of quarters since 1999.

Patient Care stocks in the screens today

In today's screens, cheapest first. ● marks one of a screen's 30 tracked picks.

Stock	Screen	Acquirer's Multiple	FCF yield	Shareholder yield

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Other Healthcare industries

Non-System-Specific Biopharmaceuticals cheaper than 77%Other Biopharmaceuticals cheaper than 75%Other Medical Devices cheaper than 69%Diagnostics and Drug Delivery Devices dearer than 51%System-Specific Biopharmaceuticals dearer than 59%Healthcare Support Services dearer than 79%Outsourced Development and Manufacturing Services dearer than 79%Miscellaneous Healthcare dearer than 93%General Medical Devices dearer than 97%

Quarterly since 1999 from point-in-time data. Each quarter, every investable US stock (price above $3, market cap above $75M, average daily trading above $850,000, no OTC, ADRs or MLPs) is placed in a percentile (0-100) against all the others on each metric. An industry's value is the median percentile of its stocks. Industries follow FactSet's RBICS classification. Percentiles describe the past; they are not investment advice or a forecast.