National HealthCare Corporation (NHC) Earnings: Q3 2026 Results

The quarter ended September 30, 2026 and National HealthCare published the results on November 6, 2026. Revenue and diluted EPS are shown against Q3 2025, the same quarter a year earlier, which takes seasonal swings out of the comparison. National HealthCare reports EPS two ways: GAAP, under the accounting rules every US filer follows, and non-GAAP, which leaves out items the company considers outside its operating results. The release reconciles the two, and when they diverge, the reconciliation says why.

• National HealthCare bought the real estate of 32 skilled nursing facilities and three independent living facilities it had leased from National Health Investors for $560,000,000 on July 1, 2026, ending that lease, and bought five skilled nursing facilities from National Health Corporation, a related party, for $50,500,000 on June 1, 2026.
• Revenue here is net operating revenues: net patient revenues (inpatient services plus homecare and hospice, as the 10-Q splits them) and other revenues. NHC reports in thousands; figures here are in millions.

Source: National HealthCare Q3 2026 results, November 6, 2026. Also in the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026. Figures as reported; checked against the release on November 10, 2026.

How National HealthCare splits revenue in its own release, under its own labels, for Q3 2026 against Q3 2025. Indented lines are parts of the line above them.

• National HealthCare's Inpatient services revenue was $356 million in Q3 2026, up 7% from $331 million in Q3 2025, 87% of total revenue.
• National HealthCare's Homecare and hospice revenue was $41.3 million in Q3 2026, up 4% from $39.6 million in Q3 2025, 10% of total revenue.
• National HealthCare's Other revenues revenue was $10.5 million in Q3 2026, down 10% from $11.7 million in Q3 2025, 3% of total revenue.

Segment lines are the figures writers cite most often, because they show where the growth in a quarter came from. Companies redraw their segments from time to time and restate the prior year to match, so a year-ago figure here can differ from the one printed a year ago. When that has happened, the note above says so.

Revenue and diluted EPS for the last 5 quarters. Each date links to that quarter's release.

Net operating revenues (labelled net operating revenues and grant income in 2025) and GAAP diluted EPS, each as first reported in that quarter's release. NHC's GAAP EPS swings with unrealized gains and losses on its marketable equity securities, which run through net income.

We do not hold a confirmed date for National HealthCare's next report. Companies post the date on their investor relations site a few weeks ahead, usually with the time of the conference call.

Each quarter keeps its own page with the figures as reported, so a link to one stays pointed at the same numbers after the next report.

• Q3 2026 (this page), reported Nov 6, 2026

National HealthCare (NHC) runs skilled nursing facilities, assisted and independent living communities, behavioral health hospitals and homecare and hospice agencies, mainly in the southeastern United States. Its net operating revenues were $407,971,000 in Q3 2026, up 6.6% from $382,661,000. Inpatient services brought in $356.1 million of net patient revenues and homecare and hospice $41.3 million. (National HealthCare Q3 2026 release, Nov 6, 2026; National HealthCare Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 5, 2026)

National HealthCare said net patient revenues rose $26,457,000, or 7.1%. The five skilled nursing facilities bought from National Health Corporation on June 1, 2026, with 639 licensed beds in Tennessee and South Carolina, added $19,278,000. Census at owned and leased skilled nursing facilities averaged 90.4%, against 90.0%, and the composite skilled nursing per diem rose 5.0% to $368.20. (National HealthCare Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 5, 2026; National HealthCare Q3 2026 release, Nov 6, 2026)

National HealthCare's patient revenue comes mostly from government programs. Medicare was 29% of net patient revenues in Q3 2026 (31% a year earlier), Medicaid 30%, managed care 13% and private pay and other 28%. Medicare paid $623.72 per skilled nursing patient day and Medicaid $291.06; managed care per diems rose 20.1% to $513.06. Total skilled nursing patient days were 796,122, against 740,373. (National HealthCare Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 5, 2026; National HealthCare Q3 2026 release, Nov 6, 2026)

National HealthCare's other revenues, which include rental income and management and accounting services fees, fell $1,147,000, or 9.8%, to $10.5 million. The quarter also had no supplemental Medicaid payments from Tennessee, against $1,838,000 a year earlier. As of November 1, 2026 NHC affiliates operated 80 skilled nursing facilities with 10,323 beds. (National HealthCare Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 5, 2026; National HealthCare Q3 2026 release, Nov 6, 2026)

National HealthCare's GAAP net income attributable to NHC was $13,637,000, or $0.85 per diluted share, in Q3 2026, against $39,239,000, or $2.50, a year earlier. Adjusted net income was $28,154,000, or $1.76 per diluted share, up 13.8%. The gap is mostly NHC's marketable equity securities portfolio: unrealized losses were $17.6 million this quarter, against gains of $20.8 million a year earlier, and both run through GAAP net income. (National HealthCare Q3 2026 release, Nov 6, 2026)

National HealthCare's non-GAAP figures also exclude stock-based compensation ($2.0 million) and the income tax effect of the adjustments. NHC said the increase in adjusted net income came mainly from the June 1, 2026 acquisition of five skilled nursing facilities and the July 1, 2026 purchase of the real estate of the facilities it had leased from National Health Investors. (National HealthCare Q3 2026 release, Nov 6, 2026)

After the purchase, National HealthCare's facility rent fell to $1.4 million from $11.3 million, while depreciation and amortization rose to $14.6 million from $11.2 million and interest expense rose to $7.0 million from $1.5 million. NHC borrowed $530.0 million under its term loan and credit facility in 2026, and current and long-term debt was $502.1 million at September 30, 2026. Diluted shares were 15,964,895, against 15,664,530. (National HealthCare Q3 2026 release, Nov 6, 2026; National HealthCare Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 5, 2026)

Diluted EPS divides net income by the weighted average number of shares outstanding in the quarter, plus the shares that options and other equity awards could add. Buybacks shrink that count and lift EPS for the same profit; share issuance and stock awards enlarge it.

National HealthCare does not publish a revenue or earnings outlook in its release. It declared dividends of $0.67 per common share in Q3 2026, against $0.64 a year earlier, and ended the quarter with $221.3 million of cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. (National HealthCare Q3 2026 release, Nov 6, 2026)

A consensus figure is the average of the models published by the analysts who cover National HealthCare, collected by a data provider and revised up to the day of the report. A quarter that lands above it says how expectations were set as much as how the business did, and the share price on the day also reflects the guidance and the lines no consensus covers.

The consensus figures on this page are Yahoo Finance's, as pulled on the date shown. Each comes with the number of analysts behind it; the smaller that number, the more one revised estimate can move the average.

The figures below are the ones National HealthCare's own release and filings put weight on for Q3 2026, with the latest reported value for each.

What the quarter means for a holding is a separate question from what it reported. The case for and against owning NHC is on is NHC a buy or a sell?, what analysts expect next is on the NHC forecast, and what the company does is on the National HealthCare Corporation (NHC) stock page.

Every number on this page can be traced to a document National HealthCare published. Checking one takes a couple of minutes, and it is worth doing before you quote a figure anywhere.

• The results release is the document linked in the source line above. Companies publish it on their investor relations site at the moment results go out, and it carries the headline tables: revenue, operating income, net income and EPS for the quarter and the year-ago quarter.
• The same release is filed with the SEC as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K under Item 2.02, usually on the day of the report. The SEC copy does not change after the fact, which makes it the safer thing to link when you cite a number.
• The quarterly report (Form 10-Q) follows within a few weeks and carries the full financial statements, the segment note and management's discussion of what changed. The fourth quarter is covered by the annual report (Form 10-K) instead.
• Restated comparisons are flagged in the notes on this page. When a company redraws its segments or changes how it adjusts EPS, it restates the year-ago column, so the year-ago figure in a new release can differ from the one printed a year ago. This page always uses the comparison in the newer release, because that is the like-for-like one.

A walk-through of every line in a release, with what each one tells you, is in how to read an earnings report.