AMN Healthcare Services, Inc. today announced operating results for the first quarter of 2011

AMN Healthcare Services, Inc. today announced operating results for the first quarter of 2011. Financial highlights are as follows:

Key business highlights for the first quarter are as follows:

· Revenues for our largest segment, Nurse and Allied staffing, were up 6% sequentially, due primarily to a 13% sequential and 44% year-over-year increase in travel nurse staffing.

· Revenues from Locum Tenens staffing were sequentially up by 1%.

· Demand continues to rise in our temporary staffing segments.

· We continue to be successful in winning new managed services program (MSP) contracts in the marketplace.

"We continue to experience a steady market recovery, as represented by a fourth consecutive quarter of sequential, consolidated revenue growth. A healthy indicator of the improved underlying market demand is that it has been broad-based across many clients, specialties and geographies," said Susan R. Salka, President and Chief Executive Officer of AMN Healthcare. "We are also seeing our acquisition of Medfinders continue to pay off. Our stronger, combined managed services program offering has brought value and differentiation to our healthcare clients, and this has helped our travel nurse staffing business to grow at a faster pace.

"The integration of Medfinders has also exceeded our expectations, as we are ahead of schedule to achieve the $10 million of targeted annualized incremental EBITDA from revenue and cost synergies. With the major integration projects now completed, we believe we can achieve this target by the third quarter, one quarter early," added Salka. "This is a great example of the value an organization can create when talented and dedicated team members come together with the purpose of achieving common goals to serve their clients."

First Quarter 2011 Results

For the first quarter of 2011, consolidated revenue was $229 million, which represented an increase of 4% from prior quarter and 60% from prior year. First quarter revenue for the Nurse and Allied Healthcare Staffing segment was $135 million, an increase of 6% sequentially and 79% from the same quarter last year. The Locum Tenens Staffing segment generated revenue of $70 million, an increase of 1% sequentially and 16% from prior year. First quarter Physician Permanent Placement Services revenue was $11 million, an increase of 16% sequentially and 41% from prior year, and included the recognition of $2.1 million of revenue associated with the adoption of a new FASB revenue recognition standard. First quarter revenue for the Home Healthcare Services segment, which was added in the third quarter of 2010 through the acquisition, was $14 million, a decrease of 5% from the prior quarter.

Gross margin in the first quarter of 2011 was 29.6%, an increase of 150 bps compared to the previous quarter and 170 bps from prior year. The increase was due primarily to a $1.9 million actuarial-based workers compensation benefit and the adoption of the revenue recognition standard previously noted.

Selling, general and administrative ("SG&A") expenses as a percentage of revenue for the first quarter were 23.1%, compared to 24.9% in the prior quarter and 22.3% in the same quarter last year. Included in SG&A expenses in the first quarter were $1.3 million of integration-related expenses. The sequential decrease was due to lower integration-related costs in the first quarter, the inclusion in fourth quarter SG&A expenses of a $1.2 million bad debt expense related to a locum tenens client, and the leveraging of the improved cost infrastructure and acquisition synergies.

First quarter 2011 GAAP earnings per diluted share was $0.05 and included the ($0.02) impact of integration-related costs.

As of March 31, 2011, cash and cash equivalents totaled $4 million, compared to $2 million as of December 31, 2010. Total term debt outstanding, net of discount, as of March 31, 2011 was $213 million.

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