CluenexTenet Healthcare THC
Tenet Healthcare scores average on business quality (4.7 of 10). Here is why, in plain words, and what our sealed record shows.
Why it matters
- What Tenet Healthcare does
Tenet Healthcare operates hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers, collecting fees from patients and insurers for surgical and acute care procedures. The company is aggressively deploying capital into its ambulatory surgical division via Conifer and expanding outpatient surgical facilities to capture higher-margin procedures.
- What it does best
Tenet delivers elite capital return efficiency, posting an ROE of 50.6% that significantly outclasses peers like HCA at 7.0%. This edge stems from its pivot toward outpatient surgical centers, which require far less physical plant overhead than traditional acute-care hospitals.
- The main risk
A heavy debt load of $13.2 billion leaves the balance sheet vulnerable if operating cash flows stall or interest rates spike. With interest coverage at 4.8x, a substantial share of operating income is tied up simply servicing debt obligations rather than funding expansion.
Quality, check by check
Scored against its own industry, from company filings.
Operating margins stand at 18.2% alongside an FCF margin of 13.9%. Profitability metrics are expanding solidly, driven by the structural shift toward outpatient ambulatory surgery centers that scale efficiently.
The network of surgical facilities creates strong localized switching costs for regional patients and surgeons. Gross margins sit in the sector's top quartile at 82.2%, shielding the business from localized cost inflation.
Revenue growth sits at 3.1%, lagging the broader healthcare sector at the 22nd percentile. Historical summaries show a steady climb in revenue from $17.6 billion up to $21.8 billion, though the pace remains modest.
Total debt sits at $13.2 billion against $2.9 billion in cash, leaving net debt at $10.3 billion. Free cash flow surged to $3.0 billion, pointing to an improving cash generation profile despite heavy leverage.
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.
11 sold $50.0M outside pre-planned sales.
Our sealed record on THC
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
Tenet Healthcare scores average on the Cluenex quality check (4.7 of 10), measured against its own industry. Profitability is fair, moat fair, growth slow and financial health weak.
In the last 90 days of SEC Form 4 filings: 11 sold $50.0M outside pre-planned sales.
Oct 29, 2026, before the open.
See THC today
- Today's verdict on THC, 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, “Tenet Healthcare (THC)”, https://cluenex.com/stocks/thc/, data as of Oct 10, 2026.