NightHawk Radiology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:NHWK)

big player in specialized area.

The physician group at my hospital loves the service they receive from NHWK. In a growing trend of budget crunches, look for more rural hospitals to outsource radiology for cost savings and even larger facilities with established radiology departments to employ them at night because quite frankly the radiologists dont want to work the night shifts. I'm looking closely at the numbers and considering putting real skin in the game at current levels.

ONE

WORD.

HEALTH.

P.S.- YOU CANT BUY HEALTH BY THE lb.

Love the earnings report and this management team seems like they finally have their heads in the right place. Positive signs all over and looking for them to carve their niche in the health care industry.

I am giving this stock a weak 'outperform' under the assumption that they can get their SGA expenses under control.

2008 2007 2006 2005 2004
Gross Profit
98.68 88.04 53.21 41.66 24.23
SGA expenses
64.78 54.02 27.61 22.99 11.99
65.65% 61.36% 51.89% 55.18% 49.48%

Hopefully the new management will pay close attention to these numbers.

Radiology Outsourcing, p/e of 10, share buybacks, MF Tiny Gem pick

cup and handle

Market forces, mainly

Like others have explained NHWK offers radiological services 24/7. Not many medical practitioners do that.

NHWK is poised to break out of the slump that has benn holding them back. They have repurchased stock in anticipation of new venues opening up to them.

They have grown their P/E by 20% over the last 3 months and although slow it is climbing appreciably.

And. . . It's healthcare.

When was the last time YOUR health insurance costs went down ??

It should touch 10 in next 3-4 months

Rally time.

This stock was picked by TMFTeahupoo for the 2008 Stockpicking Contest.

i work rural ed's, and everyplace i have been in the last three years has switched to this service. i am considering buying this stock, but have trouble understanding why everyone does not love it. they have a unique and great product and their name sells. other people might come up with copycat companies, that is the only downside i can think of.

Biggest mover in a market segment of inevitability (24-hour outsourced radiology). Next largest competitor VRAD has only U.S. operations, and isn't profitable.

Growth is still on pace -- from Q1 press release: "

-- First quarter 2008 revenue grew 61% to $41.7 million from $25.9 million in the first quarter 2007. First quarter 2008 scan volume grew 54% to 745 thousand scans compared with 484 thousand scans in the first quarter 2007.

-- New service offerings, including daytime final reads and business services, represented 21%, or $8.7 million, of total revenue for the quarter. Final reads revenue represented 11% of total revenue, or $4.6M, up from 8% in the fourth quarter 2007.

-- Organic revenue and organic scan volume grew 15% and 21%, respectively, year-over-year.

May hit short term bumps with fallen dollar, competitors trying to undercut them, but in the long run they are the biggest, most profitable, and best positioned for expansion.

The worst has got to be over with this company.

NightHawk uses board-certified radiologists on three continents to provide 24 hour coverage for 1350+ hospitals in the US. They have good financials with ttm EPS of $0.47 growing to $1.09 this year and $1.30 in '09. Their debt quite a bit higher than I would like to see at 73% of equity, but leveraged cash flow services the debt.

My primary concern for this company is its moat. They are using radiologists in the US, Switzerland and Australia. These are high dollar sources for these skill sets. The company that moves these practices to India and Viet Nam will be the winner because of the cost of the skilled radiologists.

This is a mid-term (2 year) market beater, then the erosion of their moat will find them competing fiercely with Asian providers. This will significantly impact NHWK's margins and then their bottom lines.

Healthcare as a business is hugely inefficient. It is cheaper to pay NHWK to read x-rays, mri's, etc immediately rather than absorb the cost of room and board for an extra day in the hospital because of having to wait for the Monday morning train of radiologists to come in and sip their coffee over Friday nights batch of tests (cuz most radiologists don't work weekends). Meanwhile the patients linger in their rooms waiting to find out what is wrong with them because regular doctors aren't allowed to have an official opinion of what is wrong with their patients. I think hospital administrators will catch on to this money saver sooner or later.

NHWK is part of the medical field which should perform well during a recession. I have been watching this thing fall for months anxiously awaiting a bottom. I think it has finally found a bottom! Yesterday, it was up on extremely high volume. I bought in with real dollars at $7.58 today. Expecting a strong rebound. The growth prospects and value of this company are excellent. Buy. Outperform with real dollars.

now trading at to low pe and price