In a sick stock market, health-care companies often will outperform those in other sectors. For the past year, Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq:AMED) has proven the right medicine to chase away at least some investor blues.

Shares of the Baton Rouge, La.-based provider of home-health-care services have risen about 47% in the past year, and of the analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, eight of 13 have Amedisys at either “strong buy” or “buy,” with five at “hold.”

After bottoming out Oct. 9 at $43.51, Amedisys rebounded along with the overall market on Oct. 13, climbing 15% to $51.48. Amedisys closed Monday at $53.86.

With some 80 million baby boomers approaching senior citizen status, companies such as Amedisys expect to see booming demand for their services in the coming decades. The “silver tsunami” could push Medicare beneficiariesto 79 million by 2030 from 39 million in 2000. Last year, Amedisys derived 89% of its revenue from Medicare. The typical Amedisys home-health patient is Medicare-eligible and 80 to 84 years old, with many afflicted by several serious maladies.

Founded by chairman and CEO William Borne in 1982, as of Dec. 31 Amedisys had 325 home-health agencies, 29 hospice agencies and managed a half-dozen others  — all Medicare certified — in 30 states.

For 2007, revenue climbed 29% to $698 million, with net income of $13.1 million, a 70% improvement over 2006. During 2007, Amedisys completed . . .

For access to the full article, you must be a registered member - it's FREE.