Community Psychiatric Centers

Community Psychiatric Centers said Monday that its second-quarter earnings rose 12% to $26.7 million, up from $23.9 million in the same period a year earlier. The Laguna Hills-based chain of psychiatric hospitals said revenue for the quarter ended May 31 increased 15% to $117.7 million, from $102.7 million a year earlier. Richard L. Conte, president and chief financial officer, attributed the higher earnings to increased referrals from managed-care companies and health maintenance organizations.

Speculation that Charter Medical Corp. might launch a bid to acquire Community Psychiatric Centers pushed up the price of the former Laguna Hills company's stock in New York Stock Exchange trading Wednesday. Hospital operator Community Psychiatric, which moved its headquarters to Las Vegas in August, saw its stock price gain 37.5 cents to close at $10.25 a share in heavy trading.

Community Psychiatric Centers, the Laguna Hills provider of psychiatric services, reported a first-quarter profit of $625,000, or 1 cent a share. That compares with a net loss of $37.9 million, or 88 cents a share, for the corresponding period last year, which included a charge of nearly $55 million related to the restructuring of several of the company's U.S. psychiatric facilities. Revenue for the quarter ended Feb. 28 rose 9%, to $92.5 million from $84.7 million.

Community Psychiatric Centers, a Santa Ana operator of psychiatric hospitals, reported fiscal 1987 second-quarter earnings of $16.6 million, a 15% increase over the $14.4 million reported a year earlier. Revenues for the period ended May 31 were $77.6 million, a 20% increase over the $64.6 million recorded in the prior year. For the first six months, net earnings of $31.3 million were up 15% from $27.2 million for the first half of the company's fiscal 1986.

Reeling from the recession, bad publicity and a slump in the psychiatric care industry, Community Psychiatric Centers on Monday reported a $3-million fourth-quarter loss and said annual earnings had tumbled by nearly half. Earnings for the year ended Nov. 30 fell 46% to $45.3 million, or 98 cents a share, from $83.2 million, or $1.80 a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 4% to $396.6 million for the year.

Merrill Lynch will soon stop researching the performance of financially troubled Community Psychiatric Centers, complaining that the company's restructuring effort is not proceeding fast enough. Merrill Lynch analyst Larry Rader said in a telephone interview from his New York office that changes proposed by the Laguna Hills-based company to fill its growing number of empty beds amount to too little, too late.

Community Psychiatric Centers, preparing to close or sell some of its psychiatric hospitals and cut as much as 10% of its work force, said Thursday that it posted a loss of $37.9 million for its latest fiscal quarter. The psychiatric hospital chain, which has 53 facilities worldwide, last month warned investors to expect the red ink, the bulk of which results from writing off the cost of severance packages and assets as part of the restructuring of an unspecified number of hospital facilities.

The Texas Attorney General's office said Monday that it is investigating Community Psychiatric Centers--a chain of psychiatric hospitals headquartered in Laguna Hills--and three other chains for alleged insurance fraud. Community Psychiatric said that it was aware Texas authorities were looking into psychiatric hospitals and that it had expected the investigation to grow in scope.

Community Psychiatric Centers said Monday that its fourth-quarter earnings will be reduced by about $14 million because of continuing losses from bad debts and delays in bill collection. The Laguna Hills-based psychiatric hospital chain also said that its patient numbers and new admissions have dropped in the fourth quarter compared to a year ago.

Community Psychiatric Centers said Monday that it hopes to save more than $2 million a year by relocating its headquarters to Las Vegas and consolidating some operations. Besides moving its corporate offices from Laguna Hills, Community Psychiatric is consolidating three divisions now based in different parts of the nation, said Richard Conte, chief executive officer. Doing so in Las Vegas, rather than in Orange County, will be less expensive, Conte said.

Many Orange County mental health professionals are reconsidering how they treat psychiatric cases following a jury's decision that therapists had negligently "reinforced" an Irvine woman's emerging memories that her father raped her as a child. The UCI Medical Center is reviewing its use of hypnosis and a drug that was used by the defendant therapists to clarify repressed memories.

A New York bank, concerned about the value of its stake in Community Psychiatric Centers, wants the company to dump a "poison pill" strategy that directors adopted five years ago to discourage unwanted takeover attempts. Amalgamated Bank of New York, which owns 2,700 shares of the Laguna Hills-based operator of psychiatric hospitals, suggests that the amendment to the company's corporate charter was adopted without shareholder approval.

Community Psychiatric Centers said Monday that a subsidiary has signed an agreement to manage a Seattle hospital that it eventually plans to acquire. Community Psychiatric, a Laguna Hills-based operator of psychiatric hospitals, said that its Atlanta-based subsidiary, Transitional Hospitals Corp., will manage Fifth Avenue Hospital until it can obtain permission from Washington regulators to buy the 80-bed facility.

Community Psychiatric Centers, the Laguna Hills provider of psychiatric services, reported a first-quarter profit of $625,000, or 1 cent a share. That compares with a net loss of $37.9 million, or 88 cents a share, for the corresponding period last year, which included a charge of nearly $55 million related to the restructuring of several of the company's U.S. psychiatric facilities. Revenue for the quarter ended Feb. 28 rose 9%, to $92.5 million from $84.7 million.

Community Psychiatric Centers has declared a one-time, one-cent dividend, payable March 15, to shareholders of record on March 1. The dividend is designed to make Community Psychiatric more appealing to institutional shareholders who invest in companies that pay dividends, said Richard L. Conte, Community Psychiatric chairman and chief executive. The Laguna Hills company suspended its regular quarterly dividend in 1993 to help fund a new, long-term critical care subsidiary.

Community Psychiatric Centers, cleared after an insurance fraud probe in Texas last year, on Tuesday reported a loss for 1993 but declared that a "turnaround is underway." The company, whose stock has dropped from a high of $40 a share in 1991 to a low of $9.13 early in 1993--posted progressively better results during the year, however, including earnings of more than $5 million for the latest quarter. For its fiscal year ended Nov. 30, Community Psychiatric reported a loss of $24.

Community Psychiatric Centers, reeling from a yearlong series of shocks that included a 48% plunge in annual earnings and a suspension of dividend payments to shareholders, said Wednesday that its president has left and that it will eliminate five regional divisions. The reorganization of the hospital operator, announced after the stock markets closed Wednesday, left Community Psychiatric without Loren B. Shook, a 10-year veteran of the company who took over the top operational post a year ago.