Aveanna Healthcare drops as PE sponsor reduces stake

Royal Bank of Canada

21/08/2026 12:18

** Shares of home care provider Aveanna Healthcare Holdings
 AVAH.O  down 8.4% at $11.88 premarket on Fri after secondary
offering priced
** AVAH late Thurs announced 15 mln shares sold by affiliates of
J.H. Whitney Equity Partners and some current and former co
insiders at $11.75
    ** Offering price is 9.4% discount to stock's last sale on
Thurs
    ** RBC sole bookrunner for offering
** Private equity firm J.H. Whitney comprised the bulk of the
selling; AVAH has ~218.3 mln shares outstanding, per the
prospectus 
** Atlanta, Georgia-based AVAH's stock notched 25% gain on Aug
13 after co posted Q2 beat and hiked its annual rev forecast; it
cited strong organic growth across all three business segments
-- Private Duty Services (PDS), Home Health & Hospice (HHH) and
Medical Solutions (MS)
    ** Through Thurs, stock surged ~70% over the past three
months; it touched record intraday high of $13.39 on Thurs
    ** 8 of 11 analysts rate the stock "strong buy" or "buy", 3
"hold"; median PT $13, per LSEG data

(Lance Tupper is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed
are his own)
((lance.tupper@tr.com 1-646-279-6380))