The Ramsay Health Care Ltd (ASX: RHC) share price has enjoyed a strong 2019 so far climbing from $57.76 to $64.32 today, but its key management personnel seem keen to offload shares.
The private hospital operator is forecasting adjusted earnings per share growth up to 2% in fiscal 2019 including its Capio acquisition, with it delivering core or adjusted EPS growth of 1.2% over the first half of the financial year to December 31 2019.
At the end of the period net debt stood at 3.2x EBITDA after the expensive acquisition of the Capio AB Scandinavia-based private hospital business.
On March 25 Ramsay's CEO sold 45,000 shares for around $2.9 million to help meet a personal tax bill according to the announcement, while the CFO sold 50,000 shares on March 7 and 8 for the same reasons. The company stated both may continue to sell shares in the future.
Analysts are divided on the outlook for Ramsay, with Goldmans having a 'sell' rating on the business, while others continue to rate the stock a blue-chip business to own.
