What is the Best Small Cap Healthcare Staffing Stock? TMH, CCRN, AHS & ASGN

Small cap stocks Team Health Holdings (NYSE: TMH), Cross Country Healthcare (NASDAQ: CCRN), AMN Healthcare Services (NYSE: AHS) and On Assignment (NYSE: ASGN) are all healthcare staffing stocks worth screening for your investment or trading portfolio. After all, unemployment among physicians would stand at zero while unemployment among healthcare professionals would be in the very low single digits with demographic changes (e.g. an aging population) meaning that more such professionals will be needed with employers hard press to find people to hire. Moreover, the implementation of Obamacare means that health care providers themselves will be looking at ways to turn their full time work force into a part-time workforce or to use contract staffing services – giving small cap healthcare staffing firms a big opportunity moving forward. However, which healthcare staffing firm is best for your portfolio? Here is a quick screening:

Team Health Holdings (NYSE: TMH) Will Report Earnings Later Today

Founded in 1979, Team Health Holdings is a supplier of outsourced healthcare professional staffing and administrative services to hospitals and other healthcare providers in the United States. Team Health Holdings will release its fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2012 results after the market closes today plus its worth noting that the stock is going into earnings with a trailing P/E of 36.50 and a forward P/E of 18.17. The last time Team Health Holdings reported earnings, it reported a net revenue increase of 21.6% to $539.2 million along with net earnings of $20.5 million verses net earnings of $15.3 million. Team Health Holdings also raised estimates for fourth quarter net revenue and it was noted that the company has benefited from the new hospital relationships added through its sales and marketing process. On Monday, Team Health Holdings fell 1.45% to $33.25 (TMH has a 52 week trading range of $19.73 to $34.28 a share) for a market cap of $2.24 billion plus the stock is up 51.1% over the past year and up 152.3% since January 2010.

Cross Country Healthcare (NASDAQ: CCRN) Reported a Bigger Than Expected Loss in November

Cross Country Healthcare provides an extensive suite of staffing and outsourcing services to the healthcare market and operates with four business segments: nurse and allied staffing, physician staffing, clinical trial services and other human capital management services. On Monday, Cross Country Healthcare announced that it will sell its clinical trial support business for $52 million to ICON plc as that business segment represents only a small portion of its business or $51.2 million out of $382.1 million in revenue for the first nine months of 2012. Otherwise investors should note that Cross Country Healthcare has no trailing P/E (and a forward P/E of 37.33) because the last time it reported earnings, it reported a $17.6 million loss due to non-cash charges for trademark impairment and goodwill for the the clinical trial services business segment – worst than what Wall Street was expecting. Its not clear when Cross Country Healthcare will next report earnings and investors might want to wait for them. On Monday, Cross Country Healthcare closed at $5.60 (CCRN has a 52 week trading range of $3.80 to $6.73 a share) for a market cap of $173.05 million plus the stock is down 14.2% over the past year and down 52.6% over the past five years.

AMN Healthcare Services (NYSE: AHS) Has Doubled Over the Past Year

AMN Healthcare Services offers workforce solutions that include executable managed services programs, recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) and consulting services. Last November, AMN Healthcare Services reported that revenue for its Nurse and Allied Healthcare Staffing segment grew 13% year-over-year and 5% sequentially thanks to 19% volume growth over prior year in the travel nurse staffing business while net income rose 483% to $5.9 million. On Monday, AMN Healthcare Services fell 0.41% to $12.26 (AHS has a 52 week trading range of $4.85 to $12.72 a share) for a market cap of $544.18 million plus the stock is up 117% over the past year and down 21.6% over the past five years. AMN Healthcare Services has a trailing P/E of 72.54 and a forward P/E of 22.70, pays no dividend and will next report full year and fourth quarter results after the market closes on Thursday, February 21, 2013.

On Assignment (NYSE: ASGN) Is Diversified Across Healthcare and Technology

On Assignment is a global provider of in-demand, skilled professionals in the growing technology, healthcare and life sciences sectors through a network of approximately 130 branch offices throughout the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Ireland and Belgium. More specifically and according to a recent interview with the CEO, On Assignment is the second largest professional, publicly traded staffing company; the second largest IT staffing company; the fourth largest physician staffing company; and the second largest scientific clinical research staffing company plus 94% of revenue comes from North America and 98% comes from contract staffing. Acquisitions have also helped On Assignment to increase its reach in physician staffing and clinical research staffing. However, investors should be aware that demand for On Assignment’s staffing services historically has been lower during the first and fourth quarters (e.g. client shutdowns, adverse weather conditions, the holidays) when special incentive programs need to be run to keep staff working through the holidays while demand usually increases in the second and third quarters of the year. On Monday, On Assignment fell 2.45% to $24.29 (ASGN has a 52 week trading range of $11.50 to $24.98 a share) for a market cap of $1.28 billion plus the stock is up 99.3% over the past year and up 384.8% over the past five years. On Assignment has a trailing P/E of 27.48 and a forward P/E of 19.75, pays no dividend and is next scheduled to report earnings after the market closes on Thursday, February 14, 2013.

The Bottom Line. If you can live with high P/E ratios, then small cap healthcare staffing stocks Team Health Holdings, Cross Country Healthcare, AMN Healthcare Services and On Assignment could make a healthy addition to your portfolio.