Nursing home stocks might be the next hot investment

Move over, bitcoin and biotech. Wall Street has a new hot growth sector: nursing homes.

These stocks may not be as sexy as Apple or Tesla, but real value has been emerging underneath the investment radar.

Zack’s reported recently that its Medical Nursing Homes index has outperformed the broader market over the past year — by a lot.  The index, which tracks eight leading nursing home companies, has gained 30% compared to the S&P 500’s growth of 18.2%. That’s the type of gain investors expect from a Google or Goldman Sachs.

So what’s going on here? Mainly, supply and demand, according to Zack’s, as boomers age and the base of customers grows.

But don’t take Zack’s word for it. Kiplinger just put out its list of the top 25 stocks every retiree should own, and it included LTC Properties (LTC) on its coveted list — along with the likes of Amazon and Disney. As a real-estate investment trust, LTC (which stands for “long-term care”) owns a mix of assisted living properties and skilled nursing properties.

The Zack’s Medical Nursing Homes index tracks the following stocks: Brookdale Senior Living (BKD); Capital Senior Living (CSU); Concord Medical Services (CCM); Diversicare Healthcare (DVCR); Five Star Quality Care (FVE); Genesis Healthcare (GEN); National HealthCare (NHC); and The Ensign Group (ENSG).

The companies address a variety of nursing home needs, ranging from independent living to assisted living and memory care.

While the underlying business models of nursing homes have been challenged lately because of tightening government reimbursements, Kiplinger notes that most boomers are still a few years away from the intensive care offered at such facilities.

Therefore, the real surge in demand is still a couple years out, and there is still time for investors to get in on the trend before it takes off.

Just like the oil and gas companies, nursing home services are delivered at a profit by these organizations.

So if you expect to pay money in to one of them, maybe it would be nice to invest and get some of it back.