Ensign Group: profiting from US private care

Nursing and care-home specialist Ensign Group should thrive as Americans age. Matthew Partridge picks the best way to play it.

The British government has incurred criticism for its decision to raise taxes in order to fund social care. But however the issue is ultimately dealt with, it will be a recurring theme over the next few years as populations age and require more looking after. And given this backdrop it’s no surprise that private care providers have attracted the attention of investors recently.

Shares in nursing and care-home specialist Ensign Group (Nasdaq: ENSG), for instance, have done very well over the past eighteen months, more than doubling from their lows in March 2020. However, over the past few weeks they have fallen back, and are now approximately 20% down from their peak in the early spring. Does this mean that all the investment opportunities have disappeared, or is this just a pause?

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Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri