HMA earns $150M in 2010 profit

NAPLES — Health Management Associates Inc. (symbol: HMA) earned $150.1 million in net income on $5.1 billion in revenues in 2010, up 9% and 12% respectively over 2009.

The over-the-year growth in profits may have been larger if not for a fourth-quarter slowdown. Profits were down 17% in the last three months of the year relative to 2009, but not because of low demand; the firm lost $13.1 million from discontinued operations, almost entirely the result of its sale of Riley Hospital, a 140-bed facility in Mississippi.

Yet quarterly income from continuing operations grew 26% over the year.