AMN Healthcare Services AMN stock has jumped 118.7% year to date, significantly outperforming its industry’s 10.9% gain and the S&P 500’s 11.7% growth. The rally reflects improving demand across staffing businesses, stronger execution and growing confidence in AMN’s ability to benefit from persistent healthcare workforce shortages.
Second-quarter performance provided a meaningful catalyst, with revenues rising 2.3% year over year to $673 million, 6% above the high end of guidance. Adjusted EPS jumped to 77 cents, up 158% year over year. Nurse and Allied Solutions revenues rose 11%, supported by stronger travel nurse and allied volumes, while search revenue increased 27%.
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What Is Fueling AMN’s Growth?
Nurse and Allied Demand Is Showing a Strong Rebound: AMN’s core staffing businesses are benefiting from a broad-based recovery in demand. Travel nurse volume increased 6% and allied volume rose 7% in the second quarter, marking the strongest growth rates for both businesses in four years. Travel nurse orders turned positive in May and accelerated in June, with orders up about 40% year over year by early August. Third-quarter guidance calls for more than 10% volume growth in both travel nurse and allied, supporting continued momentum.
Technology and High Fill Rates Are Strengthening Execution: AMN is increasingly using automation, 24/7 operations and AI-enabled recruiting to capture higher demand. These capabilities have improved fill rates across MSP, VMS and third-party platforms, helping the company gain share as demand recovers. Its Passport clinician app surpassed 400,000 users, up 33% year over year, while monthly active users increased more than 50%.
Persistent Workforce Shortages Support Long-Term Demand: AMN’s latest workforce report points to structural staffing pressure extending through 2030. Aging demographics, chronic disease, physician shortages, rural staffing gaps and strong allied-health demand are expected to keep healthcare organizations reliant on flexible and optimized workforce solutions. The report also found that RN supply is not keeping pace with demand, while CT technologist demand has more than doubled since 2021. These trends could support demand for AMN’s nursing, allied health, physician and workforce optimization solutions.
Strategic Acquisitions Expand AMN’s Opportunity: AMN is expanding its capabilities through targeted acquisitions. The company acquired ESSENTIAL Brand Leadership Assessment and Jaide Health. Jaide Health strengthens the company’s AI-enabled language access offerings across the patient journey, while the ESSENTIAL Leadership Assessment broadens its leadership advisory, evaluation and succession-planning capabilities. These additions should deepen client relationships and support growth in higher-value, technology-enabled workforce solutions.
A Glance at AMN’s Estimates
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AMN’s earnings per share (EPS) implies year-over-year growth of 127.9% to $3.10 in 2026, followed by a 62.6% decline to $1.16 in 2027. In the past 60 days, the consensus mark for the company's 2026 EPS has improved 14.8%.
Revenues are projected to grow 20.9% to $3.30 billion in 2026 and decline 20.3% to $2.63 billion in 2027.
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AMN Stock: Risks & Challenges
Challenges remain for the company as it moves through the second half of 2026. AMN Healthcare remains dependent on sustained demand improvement in Nurse and Allied, while bill rates have yet to rise broadly and industry competition remains elevated. The Kaiser contract renewal process is expected to be competitive, with procurement generally seeking better terms. International nurse growth could moderate in 2027 if Embassy appointment delays persist, while Language Services continues to face pricing compression and softer demand tied to immigration policies. Execution on the locum tenens technology transformation, globalized language-services delivery and conversion of higher staffing orders into placements will be critical to restoring broader growth and improving profitability.
Conclusion
This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company’s 2026 rally appears supported by improving underlying demand rather than a single catalyst. Stronger nurse and allied volumes, better fulfillment, technology-enabled execution and persistent healthcare workforce shortages provide multiple avenues for growth. However, investors should watch the normalization of the second quarter’s one-time benefits, pricing pressure and the sustainability of the recent demand recovery. With AMN positioning itself for further organic growth and potential industry consolidation, the stock’s surge reflects growing optimism around a broader recovery in healthcare staffing.
Stocks to Consider
Some better-ranked stocks from the broader medical space are Globus Medical GMED, Veracyte VCYT and West Pharmaceutical WST.
Globus Medical, currently sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), reported a second-quarter 2026 adjusted EPS of $1.34, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 19.6%. Revenues of $789.6 million beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.4%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
GMED has an estimated long-term earnings growth rate of 12.4%. The company’s earnings beat estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 27.9%.
Veracyte, currently flaunting a Zacks Rank #1, reported a second-quarter 2026 adjusted EPS of 54 cents, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 25.6%. Revenues of $150.3 million beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 4.1%.
VCYT has an estimated earnings growth rate of 8.4% for 2026. The company’s earnings beat estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 41.8%.
West Pharmaceutical, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present, reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted EPS of $2.37, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 13.9%. Revenues of $872.3 million surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 4.2%.
WST has an estimated long-term earnings growth rate of 16%. WST’s earnings surpassed estimates in the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 17.4%.
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AMN Healthcare Services Inc (AMN): Free Stock Analysis Report
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).