Tenet Healthcare cuts losses; shares take off

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Shares of Tenet Healthcare made double-digit gains Tuesday after the hospital operator said it cut its fourth-quarter losses by more than 80%.

Shares of Tenet Healthcare made double-digit gains Tuesday after the hospital operator said it cut its fourth-quarter losses by more than 80%.

Tenet Healthcare said its loss for the period ended Dec. 31 was $74 million, or 16 cents a share, compared with losses of $386 million, or 82 cents a share, for the same period a year ago. Sales for the Dallas-based company were $2.25 billion vs. last year's $2.12 billion.
Excluding a series of gains and losses, Tenet would have reported a loss of 2 cents a share. Analysts polled by FactSet Research had predicted a loss of 3 cents a share on sales of $2.24 billion.
Tenet officials reported admissions growth during the fourth quarter, and said those trends are continuing into the first quarter of 2008.
Shares of the company climbed 11% to $4.75 in recent action