CluenexAcadia Healthcare ACHC
Acadia Healthcare scores weak on business quality (3.3 of 10). Here is why, in plain words, and what our sealed record shows.
Why it matters
- What Acadia Healthcare does
Acadia Healthcare operates behavioral health facilities, making money by providing inpatient psychiatric care, specialty treatment, and outpatient services to patients paid through private insurance, Medicaid, and Medicare.
- What it does best
Acadia builds specialized behavioral health facilities that are difficult to replicate due to strict certificate-of-need laws and zoning hurdles. While peers like UHS manage diverse hospital networks, Acadia focuses purely on psychiatric care, yielding an operating margin of 10.1% that anchors its specialized clinical model.
- The main risk
Severe cash burning threatens liquidity as free cash flow sits at negative $134 million, forcing heavy reliance on debt financing. With total debt reaching $2.5 billion against $133 million in cash, any operational slip risks covenant pressure.
Quality, check by check
Scored against its own industry, from company filings.
Operating margin stands at 10.1%, but net margin collapses to negative 33.4% due to heavy interest and non-operating costs. Free cash flow margin is negative, meaning the business currently consumes cash as it scales.
Regulatory barriers and specialized facility requirements create a narrow moat protecting its patient base. Its return on equity sits in the bottom quartile at negative 50.0%, reflecting heavy leverage rather than entrenched competitive dominance.
Revenue grew at 5.0% to reach $3.4 billion, driven by expanding patient volumes across its facility network. This growth rate trails historical peaks, reflecting a slower expansion cadence.
Total debt of $2.5 billion outstrips cash reserves of $133 million, leaving a net debt burden of $2.4 billion. Free cash flow remains negative at $134 million, and interest coverage is thin at 2.2x, making the balance sheet softer.
Insiders
Executives and directors, from SEC Form 4 filings we read ourselves. Open market trades only; grants, option exercises and pre-planned sales left out.
No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Our sealed record on ACHC
Verdicts appear here 30 days after we publish them; members see today's. Each one is in the nightly ledger, fingerprinted the night it was made.
The first sealed verdicts appear here on Oct 11, 2026.
Questions
Acadia Healthcare scores weak on the Cluenex quality check (3.3 of 10), measured against its own industry. Profitability is weak, moat weak, growth slow and financial health weak.
In the last 90 days of SEC Form 4 filings: No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Nov 4, 2026, after the close.
See ACHC today
- Today's verdict on ACHC, and why
- Fair value with cautious, base and optimistic cases
- The exact price that would change the verdict
- Which stocks each signal names, the night it fires
Cite this page: Cluenex, “Acadia Healthcare (ACHC)”, https://cluenex.com/stocks/achc/, data as of Oct 10, 2026.