LFST

LifeStance Health posted a quarter that surpassed market expectations, driven primarily by strong clinician productivity and expansion in specialty services. Management credited the company’s ability to grow its clinician base and the adoption of digital workflow tools for the robust performance. CEO David Bourdon highlighted, “We continue to grow our clinician base now at over 8,500 clinicians as our value proposition continues to resonate.” The quarter benefited from improved operational efficiency and significant growth in treatment-resistant depression services, contributing to the positive market reaction. Is now the time to buy LFST? Find out in our full research report (it’s free). Revenue: $435.4 million vs analyst estimates of $414.6 million (26.1% year-on-year growth, 5% beat) Adjusted EPS: $0.11 vs analyst estimates of $0.08 (32.4% beat) Adjusted EBITDA: $66.04 million vs analyst estimates of $54.18 million (15.2% margin, 21.9% beat) The company lifted its revenue guidance for the full year to $1.71 billion at the midpoint from $1.66 billion, a 2.7% increase EBITDA guidance for the full year is $225 million at the midpoint, above analyst estimates of $210.8 million Operating Margin: 7%, up from -0.9% in the same quarter last year Sales Volumes rose 10.8% year on year, in line with the same quarter last year Market Capitalization: $4.67 billion While we enjoy listening to the management’s commentary, our favorite part of earnings calls is the analyst questions. Those are unscripted and can often highlight topics that management teams would rather avoid or topics where the answer is complicated. Here is what has caught our attention. Craig Hettenbach (Morgan Stanley) asked about continued productivity gains. CEO David Bourdon explained that increased patient flow and schedule optimization are key and that LifeStance is still only using about 70% of clinician capacity. Lisa Gill (JPMorgan) inquired about the drivers of revenue per visit. CFO Ryan McGroarty pointed to payer contracting improvements and increased specialty service mix as primary contributors to higher rates. Jack Slevin (Jefferies LLC) questioned the timeline and expected benefits of the new EHR rollout. Bourdon responded that it is foundational for future efficiency and experience improvements, and that implementation will be phased to minimize disruption. Kevin Caliendo (UBS) asked about the rationale for renewed M&A activity. Bourdon explained that small tuck-in deals are the most efficient way to enter new geographies without overextending the balance sheet. Sean Dodge (BMO Capital Markets) sought clarity on sequential EBITDA guidance. McGroarty said planned investments in technology, clinician compensation, and patient access will temporarily pressure margins but are expected to support long-term growth. In upcoming quarters, the StockStory team will watch (1) the pace and impact of specialty services rollout, particularly in treatment-resistant depression; (2) execution of the new EHR platform and whether productivity disruptions are minimized; and (3) continued clinician recruitment and productivity improvements. We will also monitor the impact of further tuck-in acquisitions and technology investments on both growth and margins. LifeStance Health Group currently trades at $12.27, up from $10.37 just before the earnings. Is the company at an inflection point that warrants a buy or sell? Find out in our full research report (it’s free for active Edge members). ONE MORE THING: Top 6 Stocks for This Week. This market is separating quality stocks from expensive ones fast. AI is taking down whole sectors with no warning. In a rotation this fast, you need more than a list of good companies. Our AI system flagged Palantir before it ran 1,662% between October 2022 and February 2026. AppLovin before it ran 753% between February 2024 and February 2026. Nvidia before it ran 1,178% between January 2023 and February 2026. Each week it produces 6 new names that pass the same tests. Get Our Top 6 Stocks for Free HERE. Stocks that have made our list include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,460% between June 2020 and June 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-micro-cap company Kadant (+214% between June 2020 and June 2025). Find your next big winner with StockStory today.

Image source: The Motley Fool. Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. ET Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations - Monica Prokocki Chief Executive Officer - David Bourdon Chief Financial Officer - Ryan McGroarty Operator: Hello, and thank you for standing by. My name is Bella, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to LifeStance Health Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Monica Prokocki. You may begin. Monica Prokocki: Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to LifeStance Health's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. I'm Monica Prokocki, Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations. Joining me today are Dave Bourdon, Chief Executive Officer; and Ryan McGroarty, Chief Financial Officer. We issued the earnings release and presentation before the market open this morning. Both are available on the Investor Relations section of our website, investor.lifestance.com. In addition, a replay will be available following the call. Before turning over to management for their prepared remarks, please direct your attention to the disclaimers about forward-looking statements included in the earnings press release and SEC filings. Today's remarks contain forward-looking statements, including statements about our financial performance outlook, business model and strategy. Those statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, as noted in our periodic filings with the SEC that could cause actual results to differ materially. Please note that we report results using non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe provide additional information for investors to help facilitate comparison of current and past performance. A reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is included in the earnings press release tables and presentation appendix. Unless otherwise noted, all results are compared to the comparable period in the prior year. At this time, I'll turn the call over to Dave Bourdon, CEO of LifeStance. Dave? David Bourdon: Thanks, Monica, and thank you all for joining us today. This was another exceptional quarter for LifeStance. We exceeded each of our guided metrics for the quarter, delivering remarkable revenue growth of over 26% and adjusted EBITDA margins that exceeded 15%. Given the outperformance in the quarter, we are again raising our full year guidance across all metrics. Ryan will provide the details on our improved view of 2026 later. Regarding operational execution, we continue to grow our clinician base now at over 8,500 clinicians as our value proposition continues to resonate. Clinician productivity also remained strong in the quarter, reflecting the power of our operating model and discipline. As for specialty services, we continue to expand our reach as we launched TMS and Spravato in additional centers to support patients with treatment-resistant depression and to drive clinically meaningful improvements in outcomes. Turning to technology. We continue to deploy digital, AI-enabled and workflow automation tools that improve patient access, enhance the clinician experience and drive operational efficiency across the organization. Regarding our new EHR, we have begun our preparations for the transition to a new vendor planned for 2027. This investment is expected to be a critical enabler of our long-term strategy, helping us streamline front and back-office operations through more intelligent workflows, deliver a better patient and clinician experience that supports engagement and retention and equip clinicians with better tools to provide high-quality care and drive improved clinical outcomes. Turning to geographic expansion. We have a significant opportunity to increase density within our existing markets and expand our footprint into new geographies as we only have a presence in roughly half of the 150 largest U.S. markets. In addition, there is substantial room to expand in smaller markets as well. Tuck-in acquisitions remain our preferred approach for entering new geographies, and we have a strong pipeline of opportunities that support our disciplined growth strategy. During the second quarter, we successfully completed another small tuck-in acquisition that expands our therapy and psychiatry presence in Arizona. Where compelling acquisition opportunities are not available, we will pursue expansion through our proven de novo approach. Finally, I'd like to highlight our ongoing commitment to clinical excellence, delivering high-quality care and improving patient outcomes is central to our mission and remains a key differentiator for LifeStance. During our first quarter call, we discussed outcomes data we published in April from nearly 180,000 LifeStance patients with moderate to severe anxiety and depression, which showed that roughly 3/4 experienced clinically significant improvements in their symptoms. More recently, we took that analysis a step further by examining outcomes from nearly 140,000 LifeStance patients across different generations and geographic regions. What we found was remarkably consistent. At least 75% of patients experienced clinically meaningful improvement regardless of generation or region where they receive care. We believe these findings are important because they demonstrate that our strong outcomes are consistent across the diverse populations we serve. More broadly, we believe mental health care is entering its next phase where differentiation will increasingly be driven by outcomes, not just access. While we're pleased to have delivered another quarter of exceptional growth and outstanding margin expansion, we believe the larger opportunity lies ahead. The combination of our scale, clinical outcomes and geographic expansion opportunities positions LifeStance to lead the evolution of outpatient mental health care and supports our confidence in the significant growth runway still in front of us. With that, I'll turn it over to Ryan to provide additional commentary on our financial performance and outlook. Ryan? Ryan McGroarty: Thanks, Dave. I am pleased with the team's tremendous operational and financial performance in the second quarter, which exceeded our expectations. For the quarter, revenue grew 26% to $435 million. Revenue surpassed our expectations from both better-than-expected visit volumes and total revenue per visit. Visit volumes of $2.6 million increased 19%. The outperformance was driven by a combination of better-than-expected clinician productivity and net clinician adds. Total revenue per visit of $167 increased 6% and was ahead of our expectations. Our visits per average clinician were very strong once again, increasing 7% year-over-year for the third consecutive quarter. This was achieved while at the same time adding 193 clinicians in the second quarter, bringing our total clinician base to 8,542, representing growth of 11%. Turning to profitability. Center Margin of $153 million in the quarter increased 41% and was 35.2% as a percentage of revenue. This came in ahead of our expectations, primarily due to the revenue beat. Adjusted EBITDA increased 94% to $66 million in the quarter, which was very strong and exceeded our expectations with the outperformance driven by favorable Center Margin. This resulted in a margin as a percentage of revenue of 15.2%, which is an impressive improvement of over 500 basis points from the second quarter of last year. We also finished with positive net income of $24 million in the quarter, which was an improvement of $27 million from the second quarter of last year. Turning to liquidity. We generated robust free cash flow of $88 million in the quarter as compared to $57 million in the second quarter of last year. Free cash flow was driven by strong performance in collections in the quarter and also benefited from the favorable timing of payroll. These payments, along with our annual 401(k) match, represent roughly $60 million and will impact free cash flow in the third quarter. We exited the quarter with a strong balance sheet, including a cash position of $226 million and net long-term debt of $259 million. Importantly, that cash balance is post the $49 million deployment towards share repurchases during the quarter. As a result, our net leverage is currently 0.2x and gross leverage is 1.3x. Additionally, this morning, we announced that our Board of Directors approved a $100 million share repurchase authorization. Since launching our initial $100 million program earlier this year, we deployed $97 million of the previously authorized capacity. We believe we are well positioned with significant financial flexibility to support the business and execute on our strategic priorities. In terms of our outlook for the full year, we are raising our revenue range by $45 million at the midpoint to $1.685 billion to $1.725 billion. The midpoint of the revenue guidance range implies a growth rate of 20% for the full year. We are also raising our Center Margin range by $23 million at the midpoint to $570 million to $594 million and raising our adjusted EBITDA range by $15 million at the midpoint to $215 million to $235 million. The midpoint of the adjusted EBITDA guidance range implies a margin as a percentage of revenue of 13.2%, which is over 200 basis points of margin expansion year-over-year. Our updated annual guidance assumes year-over-year revenue growth driven primarily by higher visit volumes, combined with mid-single-digit increases to our total revenue per visit. Based on the adjusted EBITDA outperformance so far this year, we continue to give ourselves flexibility to make additional investments in the second half of this year to better position us to support our long-term growth objectives. We are investing across a number of strategic priorities, including: first, we are driving patient acquisition and expanding access to our services through marketing and further growing our business development team. Second, we are investing in our technology team to support current and future tech and AI enablement. Third, we are building out the teams that lead and support clinical excellence to drive improved patient outcomes. And finally, we enhanced total compensation and benefits for our clinicians and many of our center support staff. These investments are reflected in our updated outlook and support our continued focus on balancing growth, operational execution and profitability. Additionally, we continue to expect stock-based compensation of approximately $60 million to $70 million this year. For the third quarter, we expect revenue of $420 million to $440 million, Center Margin of $140 million to $152 million and adjusted EBITDA of $49 million to $59 million. Given our excellent performance in the first half of the year and the strong momentum in the business, I remain excited about our long-term growth potential. With that, I'll turn it back to Dave for his closing comments. David Bourdon: Thanks, Ryan. In closing, our performance in the second quarter underscores the substantial opportunity in front of us. As we go deeper in our existing markets, grow our geographic reach, broaden our specialty capabilities and strengthen our differentiation through clinical excellence and measurable patient outcomes, we are positioning LifeStance for sustained long-term growth. Operator, we will now take questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Craig Hettenbach with Morgan Stanley. Craig Hettenbach: Dave, understanding you're coming up on more difficult comps on productivity. What are some of the levers that remain to pull on that front as you go forward? David Bourdon: Craig, this is Dave. And I appreciate the question around productivity. And the first thing I would say is that this is our fourth quarter of really strong productivity levels with our clinicians. And this is not just how we operate and manage the practice. We're continuing to evaluate opportunities and work on opportunities to improve that productivity level. And just kind of a reminder, of -- from a productivity perspective, there's 2 angles to it. First, there is -- we have to increase the flow of new patients. And we've talked in the past about actions like improving conversion of patients that are seeking care to a booked appointment and continue to work on activities like that. And then the other side of that is just general practice management actions like optimizing clinician schedules so that those schedules are more receptive to that increased new patient flow. And then it's that deliberate balance between using more of the capacity that our clinicians are giving us versus adding new clinicians. And we still have a lot of runway on this. We're utilizing right now about 70% of the time that clinicians give us. Craig Hettenbach: Very helpful. And then just as a follow-up, psychedelics are getting more attention on the back of Lilly's recent acquisition in that space. How do you think about that market and the role LifeStance can play there? David Bourdon: It's Dave. I'll take that one as well. First of all, just at a macro level, the specialty services, which is where we would put psychedelics for us, it's a tremendous opportunity for us in the coming years and it's going to drive better outcomes for our patients and it will contribute to both growth and margins. Specific to the psychedelics, we're monitoring that and we think that is a great opportunity for us and we're set up really well if that were to be approved by the FDA and also from a payer reimbursement perspective. And we'll be able to roll out those new services in a very efficient way, leveraging our center footprint as well as even some of the foundational work we've done to roll out Spravato. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Lisa Gill with JPMorgan. Lisa Gill: I was wondering if we could talk a bit about revenue per visit and the key drivers there. You talked about the specialty business. I'm just curious what the key drivers are? Is that the increase in kind of the acuity level of the patient? Is it your contracting with managed care? What are some of the key drivers as we think about the revenue per visit? Ryan McGroarty: Yes. Lisa, I appreciate the question. This is Ryan. And so I'll go into the question. Just in terms of -- so to start off, we're really pleased with the TRPV of 6% year-over-year. So we delivered TRPV of $167 in the quarter. So that grew sequentially $3.1 overall. And it really is one of the reasons between rate and volume in terms of why we raised our revenue by $45 million for the full year and also adjusted EBITDA by $15 million. To the extent around -- or to the question around like what's driving it, and it really is from a payer contracting perspective. So we're sitting here midyear now, and we have good line of sight into the rate increases for the full year. And as you probably recognized in our commentary, we updated our guidance from low to mid-single digits to mid-single digits. And it really is just based off of the good visibility we have into our payer contracts. From an overall kind of payer perspective, we continue to have good constructive dialogue with them in terms of making sure that they're providing the access to high-quality mental health care that we offer. Lisa Gill: That's really helpful, Ryan. And then just secondly, on the EBITDA, really nice margin, 15.2% in the quarter, a little more than 13% for the year. Can you talk about what your long-term goals are as we think about the EBITDA margin? Ryan McGroarty: Absolutely. So when we think about EBITDA margins, and again, I appreciate you kind of recognizing the strength of the quarter and then also just the position as you think about the full year guide being 13.2%, we're really pleased with the momentum that we have. When we think about a long-term perspective, so we've gone out there saying long-term margins in the 15% to 20% range with 20% not being a ceiling on it. We actually further dimension that in our Q4 call just around the 2028 margins and having mid-teen margins by full year 2028. We're super happy, as I mentioned, with the progress that we have on the progression of margins. But we're not, at this point, going to refine any of our long-term targets. And again, there's a ton of momentum in the business right now, and we're really pleased that we've been able to capture that. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Ryan Daniels with William Blair. Ryan Daniels: Congrats on the strong performance year-to-date. I wanted to dive a little bit more into your specialty services. Obviously, it seems like a big growth opportunity. I know it's growing rapidly. I'm curious if you could talk about the rollout process there. You mentioned again, you expanded it in some markets. Given your density and the size of the markets you're in and what appears to be a pretty big need for treatment-resistant depression services, what are the gating factors there? Is it payer contracts? Is it just putting in the CapEx? Is it training? What are kind of the rollout plans and hurdles to that? David Bourdon: Ryan, it's Dave. I'll take that one. As I mentioned in Craig's question, we view specialty services. And right now, that's neuropsych testing and then the treatment-resistant depression services of TMS and Spravato as a tremendous opportunity. And obviously, there's potential for other service lines as well. Just for a little bit of grounding, we were -- our specialty services comprised about $50 million of revenue last year. We said that's going to grow roughly 40% this year, and we expect for years to come that the growth rate of specialty will be higher than our core business. And the majority of that growth this year is really coming from the TRD services because we're in that early stage of rollout. And we're adding new chairs and Spravato sites each quarter. From a gating perspective, it's a little bit of a few things. First is we're -- it's early stages for us. So we're refining that operating model. And so we're doing a little bit of test and learn. And it can be -- there can be nuances depending on states and the payer environment and things like that. So -- and I would view the gating is more us than anything else in the macro environment. And then we would expect to be accelerating rollout in coming years. Ryan Daniels: Okay. Perfect. Very helpful. And then the other question I had, I thought you had a really kind of insightful comment that payers are moving from just access to outcomes. And obviously, you're very well positioned given your scale in clinical studies and pending EHR to really prove that you can provide great services. And that gives you an advantage with payers, probably referral sources. So maybe talk a little bit more about how you'll use that to your advantage longer term? And then also any movement towards more value-based or outcome-based contracts where you could probably also have a unique advantage for some of your peers? David Bourdon: Yes. This is Dave. I'll take that one as well. So first of all, as Ryan mentioned, we're having constructive conversations with payers. It isn't all about reimbursement and we really are trying to get to being a strong partner for the payers. And that's differentiated for us versus many of the other players in the industry. Having said that, the majority of payers are still focused on access for their employer clients and their members. We have some value-based arrangements based on access. And then there are a few leading payers that are starting to shift towards quality and outcomes. And we welcome that change. In my prepared remarks, I talked about our second white paper that we just put out around clinical excellence with the quality outcomes we're delivering on depression and anxiety across different generations and geographies. And there's really a lot more to come. We're early days on clinical excellence. It's a very exciting space for us. And to your point, we believe that this will further differentiate us from other players in the industry. And that's just going to, if anything else, strengthen that partnership as we're having those dialogues with the payers. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Jack Slevin with Jefferies LLC. Jack Slevin: Congrats on the quarter. Maybe to start, I know recently, you've talked a little bit about plans on EHR rollout and how that can expand things. I wanted to just sort of check in on progress to do that implementation and maybe any updated thoughts on some of the benefits you think that's going to bring to the platform? David Bourdon: Jack, this is Dave. I'll take that one. So first of all, from an EHR perspective, it's foundational for us. It's going to enable future success for LifeStance. As we mentioned in our prepared remarks, this is a planning year for us. And then what we expect to do is roll out the new EHR next year. The benefits are widespread across the organization, right? So efficiency of front and back office, it's going to improve the patient and the clinician experience and as well as even patient engagement. And then it's going to empower our clinicians with better tools and data to deliver quality care and better outcomes. So again, this is a foundational improvement for us that's going to enable future success of the business, and we're very excited about it. Jack Slevin: Awesome. Helpful color. And then just for my follow-up here, I wanted to just think about the cadence of clinician adds going forward? I guess -- and maybe this dovetails on some earlier questions with the productivity. But with that so strong, it would seem you have room to continue adding on the clinician front. Can you just talk a little bit about the demand and sort of what's right in front of your face as far as the ability to bring new clinicians on while sustaining some of the great metrics you've had so far this year? David Bourdon: Jack, it's Dave. I'll take that one as well. So first of all, if you look at the last year, what you've seen is strong net clinician adds and improved productivity. You can expect that is the recipe for the future. What we've talked about from a long-term growth algorithm perspective is low double-digit visit growth year-over-year, primarily driven by net clinician adds and complemented by improvements in productivity. And that's what we expect to see as we look into the back half of this year and into the future years. Jack Slevin: Congrats on the results. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Kevin Caliendo with UBS. Kevin Caliendo: I want to talk a little bit about M&A. You've done a couple of transactions now. And if you can just -- it's been a while. And I want to sort of understand why now this is happening? Is it reflective of the balance sheet of the opportunity? And if you can remind us strategically why M&A versus recruitment? Is it entering new markets? Is it better ROIC in certain cases? If you could just go back through it because I want to understand if it becomes a bigger part of the story, sort of how to think about the math around some of this and the rationale as to why. David Bourdon: Kevin, this is Dave. I'll take that one. First of all, let's go to the business reason for doing M&A. And I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we have a significant opportunity in front of us for establishing presence in new markets. We're only in roughly 50% of the 150 largest U.S. markets, and we're in 33 of 50 states. So we have a lot of opportunity to plant flags in new geographies. And so then connect that to M&A. The primary intent right now for M&A is to use it to open up new geographies. And having said that, these small tuck-ins will not have a material impact on our '26 financials. This really is about foundational acquisitions that will enable future growth. And so we're going to continue to be very disciplined and we'll focus on opportunities that are strategic and financially makes sense. Kevin Caliendo: When you say financial sense, like does it from a real estate perspective, make more sense to do M&A versus de novos and things like that? How should we -- I'm just trying to understand mathematically when you're adding real estate or you're adding a new market or even just M&A in general mathematically? Because -- and I bring it up because in the first iteration pre you guys, the M&A became a little onerous, right, and the returns weren't as great and there was move away from in office, and I think there were some issues from the balance sheet that occurred. It doesn't seem like that's the strategy here. It seems much more adjunct. Is that a fair way to describe it? David Bourdon: It is. We will use M&A to open up new geographies. It is a very efficient way, a capital-efficient way to be able to enter a new geography. If there's not an attractive acquisition target, then we'll use de novo, but that can be a slower ramp to growth in that particular geography. So those are the 2 ways we can enter. We think of the de novo engine, again, as more for opening up new geographies. If we're going to plant a new center in an existing geography, we want to grow an existing geography, the organic engine is the way to do that. Just financially, it makes a lot more sense. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Richard Close with Canaccord Genuity. Richard Close: Congratulations on the results. Maybe diving down on the clinician adds, maybe provide some more color on really what's driving the strength there in terms of why you seem to be bringing more and more clinicians to LifeStance, what's the differentiation? And then Ryan, you mentioned compensation changes. Maybe you can go into a little bit more detail there. David Bourdon: Richard, it's Dave. I'll take that. What you saw in the second quarter is what we've been delivering consistently now for multiple years in regards to the clinician growth or the net clinician adds. And our value prop to clinicians continues to resonate. And that value proposition can look different to the different -- to the various clinician cohorts that we recruit from. So whether they're a $10.99 clinician that is looking for more W-2 type benefits and more administrative support, and they just want to practice and not run a business or if it's a salaried clinician, they're looking for a little bit more flexibility while still maintaining the W-2 or if you're a new graduate and the support that we provide, which is much, much more than what you would get from especially like small practices or individual practice in the U.S. And so our value prop resonates across those 3 cohorts where we primarily recruit clinicians from and that continues. And just as a reminder, we still are like low to mid-single-digit market share of the total mental health clinician universe. So we have a lot of room still to run in regards to growing our clinician base. Richard Close: Ryan, do you want to comment on the compensation that you mentioned? David Bourdon: Yes. Thanks. I'll take that one as well. So we did mention that, and I mean that is one of the reasons why Center Margin is going down a little bit in the back half of the year versus second quarter. Specific to the clinicians, we added some bereavement benefits that line up really well with the mission of the company. Richard Close: Okay. That's helpful. And then my follow-up was maybe on the AI front. You just talked about the electronic health record. I assume since that's going to be a new platform, there's AI integrated into that. But maybe talk about the tech investments, Ryan, that you called out in the tech team. Maybe what you guys are using AI currently in the operations, administrative and clinical about like what's planned in the coming years? David Bourdon: Richard, it's Dave. I'll take that one. So first of all, if you think about AI and digital, we're in a new chapter of enabling the business with those kinds of tools. And I think of it both growth and efficiency. There's been a lot of emphasis more on the efficiency side of this, but we've even leveraged it to improve growth. Talked about the use case last year in our contact center, our phone contact center, where we were able to improve conversion of patients seeking care to book appointments and we were using -- we accomplished that through the use of some AI tools. And this year, we're just continuing to add on the use cases across RCM, new patient scheduling, the AI documentation for clinicians. And then we're also exploring new applications for the back half of this year in '27. We're piloting some additional use cases there. And then as you referenced, there will be a meaningful unlock from a technology perspective once we roll out the new EHR next year. So very exciting times at LifeStance in regards to this new chapter of technology enablement. Richard Close: Congrats. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of David Larsen with BTIG. David Larsen: Congratulations on another very good quarter. It looks like the revenue per visit, as far as I can tell, increased like around 7% year-over-year. That's one of the highest increases I've seen over the past several quarters. Any sense for what's driving that? Is that reimbursement rates? Or is it mix? And then also, can you maybe just comment on your revenue cycle, the billing piece? Are you using AI there to perhaps create more accurate quoting? Ryan McGroarty: Yes, sure. I'd be happy -- this is Ryan, Dave. I'll be happy to kind of address the first question, and Dave will jump in on the second question. So first and foremost, just as it relates to the TRPV. So we did grow TRPV 6% in the quarter on a year-over-year basis. And again, this is based off of the updated outlook just as it relates to our payer contracting. And so as I mentioned earlier in this call, is that we're midway through the year. And so we have good line of sight on our contracting. And as both Dave and I have mentioned, we have very constructive dialogue with the payers. So we feel really good about the trajectory kind of closing out this year on TRPV. Now I'll turn it over to Dave for the second question. David Bourdon: Yes. In regards to revenue cycle, you're seeing the strength of the performance of our revenue cycle team and DSO in the low 20s this quarter. That was part of the reason why we had such a strong positive free cash flow of $88 million. And that is -- that's driven by improved process as well as tools. And certainly, AI is a piece of that. So we're leveraging vendors that are RCM experts with innovative tools and things like that. And we're piloting new ones as well. And so we're just constantly looking to advance our capabilities in regards to technology. And again, it's not just AI, though. We're using RPA. We're using digital tools. So there's a lot that goes into the improved RCM results. David Larsen: It seems to me that even if the revenue per visit is increasing nicely, that's an area that the plans might kind of actually be happy about and they might want to invest in ambulatory or outpatient mental health because it can reduce total claims costs in other areas of their book of business. And it sounds like your plan relationships are good. David Bourdon: That's really well said. You just -- you gave me the answer on why we're having constructive dialogue with the payers. I mean at the end of the day, they want to get quality care for their members and they want to reduce total cost of care and with outpatient mental health being a lower cost of care setting, if you can deal with the problems early on, you can avoid more costly medical interventions down the road. David Larsen: One more quick one for me. Are you exploring Medicare, Medicaid exchange sort of coverage? Do you have any intentions to expand into those payer classes or not really? David Bourdon: We do some of that today. We do Medicare Advantage and some exchange. Usually, they're in conjunction with a large payer contract where we're taking all of their lines of business. But our focus continues to be the commercial business. And so we -- again, it's more of an accommodation, but we do very little Medicaid and Medicare fee-for-service. David Larsen: Congrats on another good quarter. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Sean Dodge with BMO Capital Markets. Sean Dodge: On the Q3 guidance, it does imply EBITDA would be down sequentially. Ryan, you mentioned some investments you're making to help support future growth. But just can you frame for us like what the incremental spend with these investments are going to be? And is all of that kind of all of this incremental going to hit in the third quarter? Ryan McGroarty: Yes, Sean. So this is Ryan. So I appreciate the question. So overall, you're right, like when you look at the sequential view, EBITDA goes down and you're referencing the investments that I went through just as it relates on the call. So when you think about the second half, so we're pleased with the opportunity to continue to invest in the business to be able to deliver the strong growth that we've done. So if you look at it on a 4-year basis, if you look at the revenue side on a CAGR, if you take the midpoint of our guide, it's like 19% compounded annual growth. And so we feel really good that both on the revenue side and on the EBITDA with a 4-year CAGR of 44% that we have the track record of making disciplined investments. So when you think about some of the investments, and they're not all coming in Q3, Sean, to your question, it's really around tech, AI enablement, practice operations around some of the clinical support that Dave referenced in terms of clinical excellence and outcome measurement and then also just addressing the higher patient volume needs overall. But again, like we feel really good about the disciplined approach we have. And then again, on the EBITDA basis, where midpoint of our guide expands margins up by over 200 basis points. Sean Dodge: Okay. Great. And then -- going back to M&A, Dave, you talked about why you're restarting it. But just any update like on the pipeline now, how we should be thinking about cadence of deals, size and composition of the things you're looking at? Is it mostly going to be smaller practices? Are there some bigger kind of opportunities out there? And then just how -- like what kind of role is specialty going to play in again, M&A specifically? David Bourdon: I'll take that on the M&A side. So first of all, the M&A today is primarily focused on the tuck-ins to open up new geographies. We are curious and opportunistically look at other parts of the ecosystem, whether that's specialty or larger practices. But what we're finding right now is that what makes sense for us from -- as we're being disciplined and strategic is that it's the small tuck-ins are the most actionable. We have a healthy pipeline that is growing in that space. And so I would expect that we'll continue to execute on the small tuck-ins for years to come. Again, it's a very efficient way for us to enter a new geography. In regards to the larger practices, we'll be opportunistic. But up till now, they financially haven't made sense. There's just -- there's less value creation in acquiring one of those versus when we buy a small tuck-in and use that as the foundation to really grow a new geography. And then on the specialty side, there is opportunity in the coming years around acquisitions in that space. But again, up until now, we haven't seen anything that makes sense for us. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Scott Fidel with Goldman Sachs. Unknown Analyst: You have [ Valentin Glossiv ] on for Scott Fidel. How are newly hired clinicians ramping today relative to the historical experience? And are there any changes in the productivity ramp time lines? David Bourdon: This is Dave. I'll take that one. That's part of the story of the improved clinician productivity. So it is an area of intense focus for us in improving the ramp of new clinicians because they're going to be happier when they're more productive and so again, that's something that we focus on. And it has been improving and is part of that improved productivity story that we've been talking about for the past year. Unknown Analyst: And also as a follow-up, as productivity improves, how do you think about balancing utilization of existing clinician capacity versus accelerating hiring? David Bourdon: This is Dave. I'll take that one as well. We're always going to prioritize the using of the capacity of our existing clinicians first before we hire new clinicians. It's a win-win. We're filling the clinicians' panel. They're seeing more patients. They're making higher income. And at the same time, it's just a more efficient way of running the practice financially for LifeStance. Operator: Your last question comes from the line of Scott Schoenhaus with KeyBanc. Scott Schoenhaus: Can you hear me? David Bourdon: Yes, Scott, we can hear you. Scott Schoenhaus: Okay. Another great quarter. So congrats. Your Center Margins of 35%, this beat our estimate and was up nicely. And I know you talked about the maybe slowdown in the back half with some bereavement benefits and other compensation tools. But maybe talk about anything specific to call out in the quarter to drive those really great margins? I know you talked a lot about productivity. And then after we get through these compensation tools, should we expect these operating margins to reaccelerate back to these kind of levels? Ryan McGroarty: Yes. So this is Ryan. So I appreciate the question. So just as it relates to Center Margin, when you think about the quarter, really clean, high-quality quarter. So when you think about the strength of Center Margin, if you isolate there, it really is on the backs of the revenue growth as it relates to both the rate and the volume. And you could think of those as like 60-40 between the rate and the volume in totality. And so we feel really good about the performance in the quarter. And then also when you kind of put it out on a full year basis in terms of Center Margin. So you highlighted the investments that we're making second half over first half. Center margin in totality still grows on a year-over-year basis by like 175 bps. So really pleased with the progress that we've had on both -- on basically everything, top line growth, Center Margin and then adjusted EBITDA. Scott Schoenhaus: Great. And if I could just sneak in one last follow-up here. You guys talked about the EHR EMR rollout happening next year. How should we think about that productivity ramp, right? I'm assuming as you implement this, depending on when you implement this, the timing of next year, it will be phased? And should we think of productivity gains then more back half weighted than front half weighted? Any comment would be -- or any color would be helpful. David Bourdon: This is Dave. I'll take that one. We're still in the planning phase on the EHR, but you have it right in that our working hypothesis or approach right now is to do it in ways just because of the size of LifeStance with over 8,500 clinicians. And when you roll out a new EHR, there's always going to be a little bit of a short-term blip in productivity that impacts the clinicians as they move on to the new platform. That's something we're working through because obviously, we want to minimize that disruption as much as possible. And we'll give more specifics as we're getting closer to next year and giving some guidance. Operator: That concludes our Q&A session. I will now turn the call back over to David Bourdon for closing remarks. David Bourdon: Thank you, operator. Before we close, I want to take a moment to speak directly to our nearly 11,000 mission-driven teammates. The work you do matters. And every day, you show up for our patients, often at some of the hardest moments when they may feel vulnerable, overwhelmed or unsure where to turn, and you do this with extraordinary compassion and professionalism. I'm deeply grateful for the dedication you bring to our patients and to your fellow teammates. Mental health care has never been more essential. We're proud of the difference LifeStance is making today, and we remain even more committed to expanding access so we can help millions more people get the high-quality care they deserve. Thank you for joining us today. And operator, that will conclude our call. Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day. 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This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. LifeStance (LFST) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript was originally published by The Motley Fool

LifeStance Health Group (LFST) came out with quarterly earnings of $0.06 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.03 per share. This compares to a loss of $0.01 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of +100.00%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this outpatient mental health services provider would post earnings of $0.01 per share when it actually produced earnings of $0.04, delivering a surprise of +300%. Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates four times. LifeStance Health, which belongs to the Zacks Medical - Outpatient and Home Healthcare industry, posted revenues of $435.35 million for the quarter ended June 2026, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 5.08%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $345.31 million. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates four times over the last four quarters. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call. LifeStance Health shares have added about 47.3% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 12.8%. While LifeStance Health has outperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock? There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately. Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions. Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for LifeStance Health was mixed. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and the current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $0.03 on $414.85 million in revenues for the coming quarter and $0.12 on $1.66 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year. Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Medical - Outpatient and Home Healthcare is currently in the top 30% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1. Another stock from the same industry, Aveanna Healthcare (AVAH), has yet to report results for the quarter ended June 2026. The results are expected to be released on August 13. This home health care services provider is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.17 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of -5.6%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has been revised 6.7% higher over the last 30 days to the current level. Aveanna Healthcare's revenues are expected to be $647.08 million, up 9.8% from the year-ago quarter. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report LifeStance Health Group, Inc. (LFST) : Free Stock Analysis Report Aveanna Healthcare Holdings Inc. (AVAH) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Release Date: August 06, 2026 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. LifeStance Health Group Inc (NASDAQ:LFST) delivered exceptional Q2 2026 results, exceeding guidance with over 26% revenue growth and adjusted EBITDA margins surpassing 15%. The company raised its full-year 2026 guidance across all metrics, reflecting strong momentum and confidence in its growth trajectory. Clinician base grew 11% to over 8,500, with productivity increasing 7% year-over-year for the third consecutive quarter, demonstrating the effectiveness of its operating model. LifeStance Health Group Inc (NASDAQ:LFST) is expanding its specialty services (TMS and Spravato) for treatment-resistant depression, which is expected to drive higher growth and margins in the future. The company generated robust free cash flow of $88 million in the quarter and maintains a strong balance sheet with low leverage, supporting strategic investments and a new $100 million share repurchase authorization. LifeStance Health Group Inc (NASDAQ:LFST) is investing in technology, including AI-enabled tools and a new EHR system planned for 2027, which is expected to drive long-term operational efficiencies and improve patient outcomes. The company's clinical outcomes data shows at least 75% of patients experience clinically meaningful improvement across diverse populations, strengthening its differentiation and payer partnerships. LifeStance Health Group Inc (NASDAQ:LFST) faces potential short-term productivity disruptions from the planned rollout of its new EHR system in 2027, which could temporarily impact clinician efficiency. The company's Q3 2026 guidance implies a sequential decline in adjusted EBITDA, partly due to planned investments in technology, marketing, and clinician compensation. LifeStance Health Group Inc (NASDAQ:LFST) is increasing investments in the second half of 2026, including enhanced compensation and benefits for clinicians, which may pressure near-term margin expansion. The company's M&A strategy is currently limited to small tuck-in acquisitions for entering new geographies, with larger deals not financially viable at present, potentially slowing expansion into larger markets. LifeStance Health Group Inc (NASDAQ:LFST) has significant exposure to commercial payers, and any adverse changes in payer contracting or reimbursement rates could impact revenue per visit and overall profitability. The company's growth is partly dependent on continued clinician hiring and productivity improvements, which may face challenges in a competitive labor market for mental health professionals. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Sign with ARHS. Is LFST fairly valued? Test your thesis with our free DCF calculator. Q: What are the key drivers behind the strong revenue per visit growth, and what is the long-term EBITDA margin target?A: Ryan McGroarty, CFO, explained that the 6% year-over-year growth in total revenue per visit to $167 was driven by favorable payer contracting, with good visibility into mid-single-digit rate increases for the full year. Regarding margins, he reiterated the long-term target of 15-20% adjusted EBITDA margin, with mid-teen margins expected by full year 2028, and noted the company is not refining these targets despite the strong momentum. Q: How should we think about the rollout of specialty services like TMS and Spravato, and what are the gating factors?A: Dave Warden, CEO, stated that specialty services, which generated about $50 million in revenue last year, are expected to grow roughly 40% this year, driven primarily by the early-stage rollout of treatment-resistant depression services. The gating factors are largely internal, as the company is refining its operating model through test-and-learn approaches, with plans to accelerate the rollout in coming years. Q: Can you provide more color on the clinician productivity improvements and the balance between utilizing existing capacity versus hiring?A: Dave Warden, CEO, highlighted that this is the fourth consecutive quarter of strong productivity, with visits per average clinician up 7% year-over-year. The company prioritizes filling existing clinician capacity before hiring, as it is a win-win for both clinicians (higher income) and the company (more efficient operations). He noted they are currently utilizing about 70% of clinician time, leaving significant runway for improvement. Q: What is driving the strength in clinician additions, and what compensation changes were mentioned?A: Dave Warden, CEO, attributed the strong clinician growth to a compelling value proposition that resonates across different cohorts, including 1099 clinicians seeking W-2 benefits, salaried clinicians wanting flexibility, and new graduates needing support. Ryan McGroarty, CFO, added that the company enhanced total compensation and benefits, including new bereavement benefits, which will impact center margins in the back half of the year. Q: How is the company leveraging AI and technology, and what are the plans for the new EHR rollout?A: Dave Warden, CEO, explained that AI and digital tools are being used for both growth and efficiency, including improving patient conversion in the contact center, RCM, new patient scheduling, and AI documentation for clinicians. The new EHR, planned for rollout in 2027, is expected to be a critical enabler of long-term strategy, streamlining operations and improving patient and clinician experiences, though it may cause a short-term productivity blip during implementation. Q: What is the strategy behind M&A, and how should we think about the pipeline and deal sizes?A: Dave Warden, CEO, stated that M&A is primarily focused on small tuck-in acquisitions to enter new geographies, as the company is only present in roughly half of the 150 largest US markets. The pipeline is healthy and growing, and while the company remains opportunistic about larger practices and specialty acquisitions, small tuck-ins are currently the most actionable and financially sensible opportunities. Q: How are newly hired clinicians ramping today relative to historical experience?A: Dave Warden, CEO, noted that improving the ramp of new clinicians is an area of intense focus and has been improving, contributing to the overall productivity story. He emphasized that more productive clinicians are happier, which supports retention and further growth. Q: What drove the strong center margin performance in the quarter, and should we expect margins to reaccelerate after the compensation investments?A: Ryan McGroarty, CFO, described the quarter as "really clean, high-quality," with center margin strength driven by revenue growth and volume, split roughly 60/40 between rate and volume. While investments in the back half will moderate margins, center margins are still expected to grow by about 175 basis points year-over-year on a full-year basis, and the company remains confident in its long-term margin trajectory. Q: How is the company thinking about psychedelics and the potential opportunity in that space?A: Dave Warden, CEO, said the company is monitoring the psychedelics market closely and views it as a tremendous opportunity for future growth and margins. If FDA-approved and payer-reimbursed, LifeStance is well-positioned to roll out these services efficiently using its center footprint and the foundational work done for Spravato. Q: Can you provide details on the Q3 guidance and the incremental investments being made?A: Ryan McGroarty, CFO, explained that Q3 adjusted EBITDA is expected to be down sequentially due to investments in technology, AI enablement, practice operations, clinical support, and addressing higher patient volumes. He emphasized the company's disciplined approach and noted that on a four-year basis, revenue is growing at a 19% CAGR and adjusted EBITDA at a 44% CAGR, supporting the decision to reinvest in the business. For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.

Interested in LifeStance Health Group, Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. Strong second-quarter performance: Revenue rose 26% year over year to $435 million, while visits increased 19% and adjusted EBITDA nearly doubled to $66 million. Free cash flow also improved to $88 million, and the company returned $49 million through share repurchases. Full-year guidance raised: LifeStance increased its 2026 revenue outlook to $1.685 billion–$1.725 billion, with higher Center Margin and adjusted EBITDA targets. The adjusted EBITDA midpoint implies a 13.2% margin, more than 200 basis points above the prior year. Investment and expansion plans: Management plans to reinvest part of its earnings outperformance in patient acquisition, technology and AI, clinician support, and specialty services such as TMS and Spravato. The company also expects a phased electronic health record transition in 2027 and will continue using tuck-in acquisitions to expand geographically. LifeStance Health Group (NASDAQ:LFST) reported second-quarter results that exceeded its prior expectations, driven by higher visit volumes, increased revenue per visit and continued clinician productivity gains. The outpatient mental health provider raised its full-year revenue, Center Margin and adjusted EBITDA guidance. Revenue rose 26% year over year to $435 million, while visit volume increased 19% to 2.6 million. Total revenue per visit increased 6% to $167. Chief Financial Officer Ryan McGroarty said the revenue outperformance reflected both stronger-than-expected visit volumes and revenue per visit. → 3 Drone Stocks That Should Soar After the Summer Slump “Our visits per average clinician were very strong once again, increasing 7% year-over-year for the third consecutive quarter,” McGroarty said. The company added 193 clinicians during the quarter, ending the period with 8,542 clinicians, up 11% from a year earlier. Center Margin increased 41% to $153 million, representing 35.2% of revenue. Adjusted EBITDA rose 94% to $66 million, or 15.2% of revenue, an improvement of more than 500 basis points from the second quarter of 2025. → Meta’s Earnings Drop Shows Wall Street Wants More Than Ad Growth LifeStance also posted net income of $24 million, compared with a loss in the prior-year period, representing a $27 million year-over-year improvement, according to McGroarty. Free cash flow totaled $88 million, up from $57 million a year earlier. McGroarty said cash flow benefited from operating performance, collections and favorable payroll timing. He noted that payroll-related payments and the company’s annual 401(k) match, totaling roughly $60 million, are expected to affect third-quarter free cash flow. → Jersey Mike's Serves Fresh Gains After IPO Stumble The company ended the quarter with $226 million in cash and $259 million in net long-term debt. It reported net leverage of 0.2 times and gross leverage of 1.3 times. During the quarter, LifeStance spent $49 million on share repurchases. Its board authorized an additional $100 million repurchase program after the company used $97 million of its prior $100 million authorization. LifeStance increased its full-year revenue outlook to a range of $1.685 billion to $1.725 billion, a $45 million increase at the midpoint. The midpoint implies 20% annual revenue growth. Center Margin guidance was raised to $570 million to $594 million, a $23 million increase at the midpoint. Adjusted EBITDA guidance was raised to $215 million to $235 million, a $15 million increase at the midpoint. The midpoint of adjusted EBITDA guidance implies a 13.2% margin, more than 200 basis points above the prior year. Third-quarter guidance calls for revenue of $420 million to $440 million, Center Margin of $140 million to $152 million, and adjusted EBITDA of $49 million to $59 million. McGroarty said the updated annual forecast assumes growth primarily from higher visit volumes alongside mid-single-digit growth in revenue per visit. The company said it expects stock-based compensation of approximately $60 million to $70 million for the year. Management said it intends to use some of its earnings outperformance to fund investments during the second half of 2026. Those investments include patient acquisition and business development, technology and artificial intelligence capabilities, clinical-excellence and outcomes teams, and expanded compensation and benefits for clinicians and certain center-support staff. Chief Executive Officer Dave Bourdon said the company is using about 70% of the time clinicians make available, leaving room to improve utilization. He said productivity efforts include converting more prospective patients into booked appointments and optimizing clinician schedules to accommodate new-patient demand. LifeStance plans to transition to a new electronic health record vendor in 2027. Bourdon described the project as a foundational investment intended to streamline front- and back-office operations, improve patient and clinician experiences, and provide clinicians with better data and tools. He said the implementation is expected to occur in waves and may cause a short-term productivity disruption as clinicians shift to the new platform. The company is also expanding specialty services, including neuropsychological testing and treatment-resistant depression offerings such as transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, and Spravato. Bourdon said specialty services generated about $50 million in revenue in 2025 and are expected to grow roughly 40% in 2026, with most of that growth coming from treatment-resistant depression services. He said the pace of rollout is currently shaped mainly by LifeStance’s efforts to refine its operating model, including variations in state requirements and payer environments. The company expects to accelerate expansion in future years. LifeStance completed a small tuck-in acquisition during the quarter that expanded its therapy and psychiatry presence in Arizona. Bourdon said tuck-in acquisitions are the preferred method for entering new markets, while de novo expansion will be used where suitable acquisition targets are unavailable. The company operates in 33 states and has a presence in roughly half of the 150 largest U.S. markets, according to management. Bourdon said acquisitions are intended primarily to establish a foundation in new geographies and are not expected to have a material effect on 2026 financial results. On clinical outcomes, Bourdon cited company analyses showing that at least 75% of nearly 140,000 patients experienced clinically meaningful improvement in anxiety and depression symptoms across generations and geographic regions. He said LifeStance believes mental health care differentiation will increasingly be based on outcomes as well as patient access. Management said commercial insurance remains its primary focus, although the company participates in some Medicare Advantage and exchange plans through larger payer contracts. Bourdon said the company has limited exposure to Medicaid and traditional Medicare fee-for-service. LifeStance Health Group (NASDAQ:LFST) is a leading provider of outpatient mental health services in the United States. Headquartered in New York City, the company operates a growing network of clinics that deliver integrated, patient-centered psychological and psychiatric care. LifeStance’s mission is to expand access to high-quality mental health treatment by combining evidence-based therapy modalities with personalized treatment plans. The company’s service offerings include individual, family, and group psychotherapy, psychiatric medication management, psychological assessment, and telehealth services. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. The article "LifeStance Health Group Q2 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for August 2026.

Our analysts just identified a stock with the potential to be the next Nvidia. Tell us how you invest and we'll show you why it's our #1 pick. Tap here. Revenue growth of 26% was driven by a combination of higher visit volumes and a 6% increase in total revenue per visit, reflecting strong payer contracting visibility. Clinician productivity remained a primary growth lever, with visits per average clinician increasing 7% year-over-year for the third consecutive quarter. Management is pivoting the company's competitive differentiation from simple patient access to measurable clinical outcomes, supported by data showing 75% of patients experience clinically meaningful improvement. Specialty services, including TMS and Spravato for treatment-resistant depression, are projected to grow 40% this year and serve as a higher-margin growth engine compared to core therapy. The company is maintaining a disciplined balance between utilizing 70% of existing clinician capacity and adding new clinicians to optimize the practice's financial efficiency. Geographic expansion is being prioritized through small, capital-efficient tuck-in acquisitions to enter new markets where LifeStance currently lacks a presence. Full-year 2026 guidance was raised across all metrics, with revenue now expected between $1.685 billion and $1.725 billion and adjusted EBITDA margins projected at 13.2%. The transition to a new EHR vendor in 2027 is viewed as a foundational investment to streamline front and back-office workflows and enhance the patient-clinician experience. Management expects a short-term productivity 'blip' during the phased EHR rollout next year and is currently in the planning phase to minimize this disruption. The long-term growth algorithm targets low double-digit visit growth driven primarily by net clinician adds and complemented by continued productivity gains. Second-half 2026 investments will focus on marketing, business development, and enhanced clinician compensation, which may cause a slight sequential decline in EBITDA from Q2 levels. A new $100 million share repurchase authorization was approved following the near-total deployment of the previous $100 million program earlier this year. Net leverage remains low at 0.2x, providing significant financial flexibility for continued M&A and technology investments. Enhanced clinician benefits, including new bereavement leave, were implemented to support retention and align with the company's mission-driven culture. Free cash flow of $88 million in Q2 was bolstered by strong collections but will face a roughly $60 million impact in Q3 due to the timing of payroll and 401(k) matching. One stock. Nvidia-level potential. 30M+ investors trust Moby to find it first. Get the pick. Tap here. Management is focusing on improving the conversion of patient inquiries to booked appointments and optimizing clinician schedules to handle increased flow. The company currently utilizes approximately 70% of the time clinicians provide, suggesting significant remaining runway for internal capacity growth. M&A is the preferred, capital-efficient method for 'planting flags' in the 50% of large U.S. markets where LifeStance does not yet operate. Management noted that larger practices currently lack the value-creation potential of small tuck-ins, which serve as foundations for organic growth in new regions. Dialogue with payers is shifting toward quality and outcomes as a means to reduce the total cost of care by avoiding more expensive medical interventions. While most contracts remain access-based, LifeStance is actively engaging with leading payers on arrangements that reward clinical excellence and symptom improvement. LifeStance is monitoring the space and believes its existing center footprint and experience with Spravato position it well for future FDA-approved psychedelic treatments. Rollout would depend on both regulatory approval and established payer reimbursement frameworks.

Announces $100 Million Share Repurchase Program SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Aug. 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LifeStance Health Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: LFST), one of the nation’s largest providers of outpatient mental healthcare, today announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026. (All results compared to prior-year comparative period, unless otherwise noted)Q2 2026 Highlights and FY 2026 Outlook Revenue of $435.4 million increased 26% compared to revenue of $345.3 million Clinician base increased 11% to 8,542 clinicians, a sequential net increase of 193 in the second quarter Second quarter visit volumes increased 19% to 2.6 million Net income of $23.6 million compared to net loss of $3.8 million Adjusted EBITDA of $66.0 million compared to Adjusted EBITDA of $34.0 million Net cash provided by operations of $99.9 million in the second quarter Free Cash Flow generation of $87.9 million in the second quarter For full year 2026, raising revenue expectations to $1.685 billion to $1.725 billion, Center Margin expectations to $570 million to $594 million, and Adjusted EBITDA of $215 million to $235 million “This was an outstanding second quarter and first half of 2026 for LifeStance, as we delivered quarterly revenue growth of 26%, positive net income of $24 million, and Adjusted EBITDA margins of 15%.” said Dave Bourdon, CEO of LifeStance. “This momentum underscores the substantial growth opportunity ahead as we extend our reach into new geographies, broaden our specialty capabilities, and strengthen our differentiation through clinical excellence and measurable patient outcomes.” __________________________________________NM - not meaningful (All results compared to prior-year period, unless otherwise noted) Revenue grew 26% to $435.4 million. Revenue growth in the second quarter was driven primarily by higher visit volumes from net clinician growth, improved clinician productivity, and higher total revenue per visit. Income from operations was $30.7 million and net income was $23.6 million. Center Margin grew 41% to $153.0 million, or 35.2% of total revenue. Adjusted EBITDA increased 94% to $66.0 million, or 15.2% of total revenue. Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenue increased in the second quarter as a result of higher total revenue per visit, lower center costs as a percentage of revenue, and improved operating leverage from revenue growing faster than general and administrative expenses. Balance Sheet, Cash Flow, and Capital Allocation For the six months ended June 30, 2026, LifeStance generated $133.0 million of cash flow from operations, including $99.9 million during the second quarter of 2026. The Company ended the second quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $225.9 million and net long-term debt of $259.0 million. 2026 Guidance LifeStance is providing the following outlook for 2026: The Company is raising full year revenue to $1.685 billion to $1.725 billion, Center Margin to $570 million to $594 million, and Adjusted EBITDA to $215 million to $235 million. For the third quarter of 2026, the Company expects total revenue of $420 million to $440 million, Center Margin of $140 million to $152 million, and Adjusted EBITDA of $49 million to $59 million. Share Repurchase Program The Company's Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program authorizing the repurchase of up to $100 million of the Company's outstanding common stock, which replaces the Company's prior $100 million repurchase program approved by the Board of Directors of the Company on February 24, 2026. Repurchases may be made from time to time at the Company's discretion in the open market or through privately negotiated transactions, including accelerated share repurchase programs, subject to market conditions and other relevant factors. Conference Call, Webcast Information, and Presentations LifeStance will hold a conference call today, August 6, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss the second quarter 2026 results. Investors who wish to participate in the call should dial 1-800-715-9871, domestically, or 1-646-307-1963, internationally, approximately 10 minutes before the call begins and provide conference ID number 6776851 or ask to be joined into the LifeStance call. A real-time audio webcast can be accessed via the Events and Presentations section of the LifeStance Investor Relations website (https://investor.lifestance.com), where related materials will be posted prior to the conference call. About LifeStance Health Group, Inc. Founded in 2017, LifeStance (Nasdaq: LFST) is reimagining mental health. We are one of the nation’s largest providers of virtual and in-person outpatient mental healthcare for children, adolescents and adults experiencing a variety of mental health conditions. Our mission is to help people lead healthier, more fulfilling lives by improving access to trusted, affordable, and personalized mental healthcare. LifeStance and its supported practices employ over 8,500 psychiatrists, advanced practice nurses, psychologists and therapists and operates across 33 states and more than 550 centers. To learn more, please visit www.LifeStance.com. We routinely post information that may be important to investors on the “Investor Relations” section of our website at investor.lifestance.com. We encourage investors and potential investors to consult our website regularly for important information about us. Forward-Looking Statements Statements in this press release and on the related teleconference that express a belief, expectation or intention, as well as those that are not historical fact, are forward-looking statements. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to: full year and third quarter guidance and management's related assumptions; business plans and objectives; our share repurchase authorization and repurchases thereunder; and other statements contained in this press release that are not historical facts. When used in this press release and on the related teleconference, words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “intend,” “potential,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “plan,” “target,” “predict,” “project,” “seek” and similar expressions as they relate to us are intended to identify forward-looking statements. They involve a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events and results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: if reimbursement rates paid by third-party payors are reduced or if third-party payors otherwise restrain our ability to obtain or deliver care to patients, our business could be materially harmed; we may not grow at the rates we historically have achieved or at all, even if our key metrics may imply future growth, including if we are unable to successfully execute on our growth initiatives and business strategies; if we fail to manage our growth effectively, our expenses could increase more than expected, our revenue may not increase proportionally or at all, and we may be unable to execute on our business strategy; our ability to recruit new clinicians and retain existing clinicians; we conduct business in a heavily regulated industry and if we fail to comply with these laws and government regulations, we could incur penalties or be required to make significant changes to our operations or experience adverse publicity, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition; we are dependent on our relationships with supported practices, which we do not own, to provide healthcare services, and our business would be harmed if those relationships were disrupted or if our arrangements with these entities became subject to legal challenges; we operate in a competitive industry, and if we are not able to compete effectively, our business and financial performance would be harmed; the impact on us of healthcare reform legislation and other changes in the healthcare industry and in healthcare spending is currently unknown, but may harm our business; if our or our vendors’ security measures fail or are breached and unauthorized access to our employees’, patients’ or partners’ data is obtained, our systems may be perceived as insecure, we may incur significant liabilities, including through private litigation or regulatory action, our reputation may be harmed, and we could lose patients and partners; our business depends on our ability to effectively invest in, implement improvements to and properly maintain the uninterrupted operation and data integrity of our information technology and other business systems; our existing indebtedness could adversely affect our business and growth prospects; and other risks and uncertainties set forth under “Risk Factors” included in the reports we have filed or will file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025 and subsequent filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission. LifeStance does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements made in this press release to reflect any change in management's expectations or any change in the assumptions or circumstances on which such statements are based, except as otherwise required by law. Non-GAAP Financial Information This press release contains certain non-GAAP financial measures, including Center Margin, Adjusted EBITDA, and Adjusted EBITDA margin. Tables showing the reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the comparable GAAP measures are included at the end of this release. Management believes these non-GAAP financial measures are useful in evaluating the Company’s operating performance, and may be helpful to securities analysts, institutional investors and other interested parties in understanding the Company’s operating performance and prospects. This press release also refers to Free Cash Flow, which is calculated as net cash provided by operating activities less purchases of property and equipment. Management believes Free Cash Flow is a useful indicator of liquidity that provides information to management and investors about the amount of cash generated from our operations that, after investments in property and equipment, can be used for future growth. These non-GAAP financial measures, as calculated, may not be comparable to companies in other industries or within the same industry with similarly titled measures of performance. Therefore, the Company’s non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, or in isolation from, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP, such as net income (loss) or income (loss) from operations. Center Margin and Adjusted EBITDA anticipated for the third quarter of 2026 and full year 2026 are calculated in a manner consistent with the historical presentation of these measures at the end of this release. Reconciliation for the forward-looking third quarter of 2026 and full year 2026 Center Margin, Adjusted EBITDA guidance and Free Cash Flow is not being provided, as LifeStance does not currently have sufficient data to accurately estimate the variables and individual adjustments for such reconciliation. As such, LifeStance management cannot estimate on a forward-looking basis without unreasonable effort the impact these variables and individual adjustments will have on its reported results. Management acknowledges that there are many items that impact a company’s reported results and the adjustments reflected in these non-GAAP measures are not intended to present all items that may have impacted these results. CONTACT: Investor Relations Contact Monica Prokocki VP of Finance & Investor Relations 602-767-2100 [email protected]

Image source: The Motley Fool. Thursday, May 7, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. ET Chief Executive Officer — David Bourdon Chief Financial Officer — Ryan McGroarty Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email [email protected] David Bourdon: Thanks, Monica, and thank you all for joining us today. We had an exceptional start to the year at LifeStance. We exceeded each of our guided metrics with strong revenue growth of over 21% and more than $50 million in adjusted EBITDA, a 48% increase over last year. We grew our clinician base by more than 300 in the quarter to over 8,300 clinicians. We also delivered meaningful year-over-year improvements in clinician productivity, reflecting the continued impact of the initiatives we implemented last year. Given the outperformance in the quarter, we are raising our full year guidance across all metrics. And later, Ryan will provide the details on our improved view of 2026. From a macro environment perspective, we continue to see a growing demand for high-quality mental healthcare, as well as patients seeking more affordable solutions, driving a shift from cash pay to insurance coverage. LifeStance is uniquely positioned to meet these needs. We're seeing this through our success in growing our clinician base, attracting new patients and driving clinical and operational excellence. Regarding operational execution, the momentum we established in 2025 with strong visit growth and clinician productivity carried into the first quarter. These efforts centered around enhancements to new patient conversion and engagement. Importantly, these initiatives are embedded in our operating model and supported by clinician level visibility, education and incentives, giving us confidence in their durability as we continue to scale our clinician base. Turning to technology. We continue to apply digital and AI tools in focused, practical ways to improve patient access, clinician experience and operational efficiency. Across the organization, digital and AI tools, including digital patient check-in, AI-driven workflows and robotic process automation support operational excellence, particularly in areas with heavy manual processes such as revenue cycle management. In addition, AI-enabled scheduling tools support our new patient telephone booking process, resulting in converting more calls to appointments. We are also rolling out AI-assisted clinical documentation to reduce administrative burden and cognitive load for clinicians, enabling them to spend more time with patients, which should improve patient and clinician satisfaction. As per our new EHR, last quarter, we announced the selection of a best-in-class vendor with implementation expected to begin this year and the transition occurring during 2027. Our focus has now shifted to organizational readiness and early clinician engagement. The transition to the new EHR will support our ability to scale efficiently, integrate AI more seamlessly and improve the consistency of both the clinician and patient experience, while delivering clinical excellence. There remains a tremendous opportunity for technology to further enable the business. We will remain focused on prioritizing use cases with clear clinical and operational impact as we deploy these tools more broadly across the organization. This approach to technology strengthens LifeStance's leadership position, while reinforcing clinician trust and the quality of care we deliver to patients. Turning to geographic expansion. We see a significant opportunity ahead to increase both density within our existing markets and to expand our geographic footprint. As we've discussed, tuck-in acquisitions are our preferred way of entering new MSAs. And after 3 years, we're back to executing on M&A, with a disciplined and targeted approach. We have established a strong pipeline of potential acquisitions and expect tuck-ins going forward to be a meaningful part of our geographic expansion strategy. We're pleased that during the first quarter, we opened 2 new markets through acquisitions, adding high-quality practices that align well with our model and our culture. While these deals will contribute a nonmaterial amount of revenue this year, they establish new market entry points to support future growth in 2027 and beyond. Where attractive tuck-in opportunities are not available to us, we'll continue to enter new geographies with a de novo approach. Finally, I'd like to highlight our progress on clinical excellence. Our clinicians and the positive impact we're having on patients is the foundation of everything we do at LifeStance. Measuring how we're improving patient outcomes at scale is critical to ensuring our care is effective, and we also use these findings to identify opportunities to improve that care. In April, we published new clinical outcomes data from nearly 180,000 LifeStance patients that showed roughly 3/4 benefited from clinically significant improvements in their anxiety and depression, further validating our commitment to clinical excellence. These clinical outcomes, combined with strong patient satisfaction as reflected in our over 4.7 out of 5 Google Stars rating for our over 575 centers, reinforce that our model is working. And importantly, these strong patient outcomes and high satisfaction scores are the direct result of the dedication of our clinicians and our ongoing commitment to enable our clinicians to deliver high-quality care to patients. With that, I'll turn it over to Ryan to provide additional commentary on our financial performance and outlook. Ryan? Ryan McGroarty: Thanks, Dave. I am pleased with the team's operational and financial performance in the first quarter, which exceeded our expectations. For the quarter, revenue grew 21% to $403 million. Revenue surpassed our expectations from both better-than-expected total revenue per visit and visit volumes. Visit volumes of 2.5 million increased 18%. The outperformance was driven by a combination of better-than-expected clinician productivity and net clinician adds. Total revenue per visit of $163 increased 3% and was modestly ahead of our expectations. Our visits per average clinician were strong once again, increasing 7% year-over-year for the second consecutive quarter. This was achieved while at the same time adding 309 clinicians in the first quarter, bringing our total clinician base to 8,349, representing growth of 11%. Turning to profitability. Center Margin of $136 million in the quarter increased 24% and was 33.7% as a percentage of revenue. This came in ahead of our expectations, primarily due to the revenue beat as well as lower spending in center costs. Adjusted EBITDA increased 48% to $51 million in the quarter, which was very strong and exceeded our expectations. This resulted in a margin as a percentage of revenue of 12.7%. The outperformance in the quarter was attributable to favorable Center Margin. We also finished with positive net income of $14 million in the quarter as compared to $1 million last year. Turning to liquidity. We generated robust free cash flow of $22 million in the first quarter, which was an improvement of $32 million from the first quarter of last year. We exited the quarter with a strong balance sheet, including a cash position of $195 million and net long-term debt of $263 million. Importantly, that cash balance reflects $49 million deployed towards share repurchases during the quarter following the Board's $100 million authorization in February. With net leverage of 0.5x and gross leverage of 1.6x, we believe we are well positioned with significant financial flexibility to support the business and execute on our strategic priorities. In terms of our outlook for the full year, we are raising our revenue range by $25 million at the midpoint to $1.64 billion to $1.68 billion. The midpoint of the revenue guidance implies a growth rate of 17%. We are also raising our Center Margin range by $21 million at the midpoint to $547 million to $571 million and raising our adjusted EBITDA range by $15 million at the midpoint to $200 million to $220 million. The midpoint of the adjusted EBITDA guidance implies a margin as a percentage of revenue of 12.7%, which is over 150 basis points of margin expansion year-over-year. As we previously communicated, our annual guidance assumes year-over-year revenue growth driven primarily by higher visit volume, combined with low to mid-single-digit increases to our total revenue per visit. Additionally, we continue to expect stock-based compensation of approximately $60 million to $70 million this year. For the second quarter, we expect revenue of $405 million to $425 million; Center Margin of $135 million to $147 million; and adjusted EBITDA of $50 million to $60 million. As we look beyond 2026, we continue to expect annual revenue growth in the mid-teens and to achieve mid-teens adjusted EBITDA margins by full year 2028. The macro trends we're seeing across mental healthcare, along with the momentum in our performance, reinforce our confidence in that outlook. With that, I'll turn it back to Dave for his closing comments. David Bourdon: Thanks, Ryan. This is an exciting time for LifeStance. Demand for mental healthcare is growing while affordability is increasingly important for patients. Our model is differentiated and delivers high-quality outcomes. This combination gives us confidence to meet the needs of patients and provide a compelling place to practice for clinicians. Operator, we will now take questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions] So your first question comes from the line of Craig Hettenbach from Morgan Stanley. Craig Hettenbach: Clinician growth was a bit above expectations in the quarter. So any tailwinds you would call out in the quarter? And then more broadly, just some of the things you're doing to kind of attract and retain clinicians to the platform. David Bourdon: Craig, this is Dave. I'll take that one. So we did have strong, we had very strong results around clinicians in the first quarter, as you noted, not just in the clinician adds, which were over 300, but also saw the third quarter in a row of strong productivity improvements. We grew that about 7% year-over-year. In regards to the clinician growth that we saw, nothing new to point to there, primarily driven by the strength of our recruiting along with stable retention. Craig Hettenbach: Got it. And then when I think through on the margin front, so delivering some good operating leverage here, the 15% to 20% longer-term EBITDA margins, how are you thinking about all the things you're doing from a technology perspective? I know you touched on the EHR investment. But just how do you envision kind of some of the efficiencies in AI kind of layering into kind of that path to the longer-term margins? Ryan McGroarty: Yes, Craig, this is Ryan. So overall, so technology is a key lever, right, in terms of being able to deliver the long-term margins. But you framed it exactly right. So when we've stand out, we've talked about long-term margins in the 15% to 20% range. Overall, we further time to mention that to hitting adjusted EBITDA margins of mid-teens by 2028. And so we look at the leveraging. So to get to those margins, you get continued expansion around your Center Margin. And then you also get continued leveraging through your G&A line, which does come from items such as AI enablement, technological initiatives that kind of make us more efficient in being able to get the scale growth overall. So it is a key component just as we think about the long-term margin profile of the business. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Ryan Daniels from William Blair. Matthew Mardula: This is Matthew Mardula on for Ryan. Congrats on a great quarter. It's great to hear about all the productivity initiatives continuing to work well. But when we look ahead, are there still new productivity initiatives planned by the company to be released in the upcoming quarters that are in the company's pipeline? Or is the strategy more focused to work on the current productivity initiatives that are already established and going well instead of maybe adding new ones? David Bourdon: Matthew, it's David. I'll take that one, and thanks for the congrats on the quarter. We're really pleased with the strong start to the year. In regards to the clinician productivity, we have numerous initiatives that are underway. We've talked about that a lot in the back half of last year. The thing I always start with is remember, this is about visit growth. And what we're doing is an intentional balancing of using the available capacity of our existing clinicians versus hiring new clinicians. And the higher productivity benefits, both the clinician as well as the LifeStance. So we're going to continue to look for new opportunities to improve productivity, while we're also continuing to execute on the initiatives that we've talked about for the past half year, of which all of those are durable and are continuing. You're seeing that in our results. But I always come back to it that intentional balancing. And when we think about the long-term growth algorithm, we still point to that's going to be primarily driven by net clinician adds versus productivity and with productivity just being complementary. Matthew Mardula: Great. And then regarding visits, with that coming in strong at, I think, roughly 18% growth in Q1. And then given the last 2 quarters before Q1, we've seen visit growth around that 16% to 18% growth. And when we think about your guidance of that low double-digit visit growth going forward, should we maybe be expecting visits not to accelerate as seen in the past quarters in the back half? And that might just be because of the productivity initiatives that were established and gaining maturity in the second half of last year. But if you could just kind of help me understand, what you're thinking about visit growth for the rest of the year? And any color into that given what we've seen in the past couple of quarters would be great. Ryan McGroarty: Yes. So perfect. This is Ryan. I'll jump in there for that one. So first and foremost, just as you talk about the guide, overall, we're very pleased with the guide. So just you take it from a top line from a revenue perspective, growing at the midpoint at 17%. And then if you go down the P&L to adjusted EBITDA of 33%. When you think about revenue, so I'll start there is, obviously, we've raised our guidance by $25 million. When you think about the 17% year-over-year growth, it takes on a more normal shape to some of our consistent patterns that we've had in terms of revenue being approximately 50/50 first half versus second half, with second half being modestly higher. And so that plays into the whole visit volume. So we do have -- and you referenced this in your question, as you get into the second half of the year, you do lap your productivity initiatives. And as Dave mentioned, our growth will always be primarily from net clinician adds complemented by productivity, and you see more of that dynamic kind of happening in the second half versus the big gains in productivity that we saw in the second half of last year and the first half that we're expecting this year. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Richard Close from Canaccord. John Granville Pinney: Yes, John Pinney on for Richard Close. Congrats on the quarter. First, on the clinician adds, do you have any sense of, like where a majority of the strong quarter, 309 adds sequentially, where a majority of them are coming from? And how many are attributable to the tuck-in acquisitions? Are they mostly like new adds? Are they moving from private practice? Or just any other sense of the source? David Bourdon: John, this is Dave. I'll take that one. So first of all -- I'll take the last part of your question first. M&A did contribute in the quarter to net clinician adds, but very modest. So as mentioned in our prepared remarks, M&A is immaterial to 2 tuck-ins from a contribution perspective. So the net clinician growth is primarily driven by organic hiring, again, with stable retention. Now your first part of the question, where are those clinicians coming from? No real change in that dynamic. We continue to see clinicians coming from 3 buckets. The first is and the largest being clinicians that are $10.99, small practice, and they're looking for more support and a stronger connection to our practice. And so they're joining us. The second bucket I'd highlight is the clinicians that are salaried, this is a smaller bucket. These are ones that are at hospital systems or practices like that, and they're looking for more flexibility, but while still retaining some of those W-2 benefits in regards to health, health care, matching 401(k), those kinds of things. And then the third bucket is new graduates. So individuals that are just graduating from school, then getting their licensure and coming to work at LifeStance. We continue to have a strong pipeline across all 3 of those categories. And again, I wouldn't point to anything new in the first quarter. John Granville Pinney: All right. And then on the EBITDA guidance, it looks like margin at the midpoint steps up with the 2Q guidance. And for the full year, it stays pretty consistent with what was achieved in first quarter. Is there anything to like keep in mind when modeling in the second half of the year? Ryan McGroarty: Yes. So this is Ryan. So I'll jump in on that question. So you got it right, like overall. One thing kind of as you're thinking about your models is that G&A does step up $6 million from our previous guidance. We're very thoughtful about, like the investments that support our growth. As it relates to G&A, there's really nothing significant to point to as it relates to -- we talked about this a little in Craig's question just around continued investment around AI and technology and then also in patient acquisition on a BD perspective. But when you're looking at just the sequencing the phasing second half versus first half, that is something that's notable just in terms of kind of key difference between first half and second half. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of David Larsen from BTIG. David Larsen: Congrats on another great quarter. Can you talk a little bit about the technology infrastructure and basically the conversion from inbound inquiries from prospective patients to first visit? And maybe just talk about how that process is evolving or improving or how it's changed over the years and what your expectations are for it going forward? David Bourdon: Dave, this is Dave. I'll take that one. So in regards to the conversion of patients seeking care to a booked appointment, one of our big focus areas for online booking is we've rolled out what we're calling Care Matching 2.0. And we had piloted the new solution. It's a new algorithm, with a little bit of new technology in the back half of last year and the beginning of this year, and that went really well. What we're seeing is an improvement in conversion of patients seeking care to a book appointment by about 5%. And so as a result, we're now rolling out that new Care Matching algorithm and online tool across the country and have that rolled out completed in the next couple of months. So we're really pleased with that. We won't stop there. It's really a journey. We'll also be looking at the patient experience online as they're going through that process and are there opportunities to reduce friction. And we'll be doing some of that exploration in the back half of this year. David Larsen: Great. And then can you talk a little bit about how you measure results like the functionality of the patient themselves? And I guess, I don't know, perhaps like performance with activities of daily living. Are they tracking health improvement metrics? And do you have an app where the members can sort of correspond with the docs on a real-time basis and track and measure habits so that you can sort of see and track how all the patients are doing and if they're improving? And if so, like by how much? David Bourdon: Yes. This is Dave. I'll take that one as well. There are a couple of things there. So first of all, from a measurement perspective, and I talked about in my prepared remarks, the study that we published based on data we had across 180,000 patients, and that data was from last year. What we're doing now is on a regular basis, monthly, we're checking in with our patients, and they're completing surveys primarily around anxiety and depression, and that allows us to track their progress. And if it's going great, then we stay the course. But obviously, if their health is not improving, then what we're doing is we're exploring from a care pathway perspective, what are other options that our clinicians could provide to those patients to improve their health. And that survey is taken by the patients in our digital patient check-in tool. So that's where the patient interacts and fills out that information. In regards to an app, we do not have that, so we do not have that capability you described. That is something that we're exploring. And we think about it as almost a continuum of care and what are ways that we can interact with and support the patient in between the visits that they're having with their clinicians. So more to come on that. And we do believe that will eventually improve the outcomes for patients and potentially get them healthier faster. But that's more of an in the exploration phase at this stage. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Sean Dodge from BMO Capital Markets. Sean Dodge: Maybe just staying on that outcome study, Dave, you just mentioned, how do you leverage those findings now? Is this more of a tool that helps with negotiations, and coverage and rates from managed care? Or is this something that maybe more helps with like competitive positioning, competitive differentiation and driving more referral volumes from primary care? Or is it kind of all of the above? Just how do you kind of like operationalize this now? David Bourdon: Yes. It's Dave. I'll take that one, Sean. You nailed it. It's really all of the above, right? So first of all, as I was just talking about, it's going to become a more increasingly important part of how we provide care to patients because it's rich data that our clinicians can use in the treatment of their patients and understanding how their health is improving or not improving. So that starts there. And then sure, it becomes a proof point for us as we're working with referral partners or prospective referral partners about them sending their patients to us. It's part of establishing that trust. And then in regards to the payer dynamic, today, most payers are still focused on access. They need access for their members and they're hearing it from their corporate clients around that access to outpatient mental healthcare. But we believe that, it will become increasingly important to be able to demonstrate quality outcomes. And that's why we have such a big focus on clinical excellence. And we're going to continue to put a lot more emphasis on that this year and in the coming years. We believe there's a lot of opportunity for us to be able to differentiate ourselves versus other practices. Sean Dodge: Okay. Great. And then maybe going back to the clinician productivity enhancements. You talked about one of the other maybe less direct benefits of that being improved clinician satisfaction and that leading to less turnover since they're getting the hours they want as they're seeing more patients. I guess, with having a couple of quarters of kind of that behind you now, these improved productivity tools, have you seen any change in clinician retention or clinician churn, or is it maybe still a little too early to tell? David Bourdon: I think it's too early to tell. What we're seeing is continued stable retention. We are anecdotally getting very positive feedback from clinicians around us better filling their calendars, the new cash incentive program that's tied to both productivity and quality. So again, we're continuing to get anecdotally positive feedback from the clinicians, but we have not seen anything meaningfully move in regards to retention. Sean Dodge: Congratulations on the quarter. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Jack Slevin from Jefferies. Jack Slevin: Congrats on the really strong quarter. Maybe I'll just tack 2 into one here. I guess looking at the stack of the guidance, a lot of commentary on the productivity efforts and other things. But maybe just more granularly thinking about care margin, I think, it assumes sort of a higher year-over-year step-up based on how that trended last year when you look at the last 3 quarters. Can you maybe just talk a little bit about what drives that or what in the baseline from last year may not necessarily be the right thing to comp against as you think about the care margin performance that's implied in the new guidance? And then the second one, we noticed over the last, call it, 5 or 6 months that payers have been broadening access for TMS or some of the higher acuity services that you provide. Can you maybe just talk a little bit about how that's trending for you or if you see potential for that to accelerate? Optum quite recently made it possible for NPs to bill for that service, which they previously had not allowed in a number of states. I'd just love to think about that broadly and if those good trends can continue or if there's potential to accelerate. Ryan McGroarty: Jack, this is Ryan. I'll start off on the first question. I think Dave will jump in on the second part of your question. So as it relates to Center Margin, just as it relates to the step-up that we're seeing there. So when you look on a year-over-year basis, Center Margin approximately has improved about 130 bps. So went from last year, 32.4% to implied in our guide is 33.7% this year. When you think about some of the components just in terms of the favorability, it really is from rate, operating leverage from volume, which includes some of the productivity initiatives that we've talked at length about, and then also just some favorable spending kind of within that bucket. When you think about the spending, I wouldn't point to anything specific on that. But to go back to like we're really pleased with the progression just as it relates to being able to expand our Center Margin, and it's tied back to just Center Margin expansion in addition to G&A leveraging gets us to our long-term growth algorithm. And I'll turn it over to Dave to answer the specialty question. David Bourdon: Yes. So in regards to specialty, just from a grounding, last year, we did about $50 million in revenue from specialty services, and we expect that to grow to roughly $70 million this year or about 40% year-over-year increase. The majority of the $50 million is neuropsych testing, where we're the national leader in that particular service. But then when you step into 2026, the higher growth rate versus regular book of business is driven by the TMS and Spravato services, which we're in the early stage on from a rollout perspective. We're adding new TMS chairs and Spravato sites every quarter, and we'll continue to do that for some time to come. The other thing I would point to, Jack, is we're really set up well for these specialty services, whether it's TMS Spravato or if there is new things that are approved in the future, like psychedelics because we have over 575 centers. And so this ends up being a very low capital intensity for us because we're able to leverage those centers, and it works well for our model and providing holistic treatment for our patients, especially for the patients that need these services. Jack Slevin: Congrats again on the strong results. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Peter Warndorff from Barclays. Peter Warendorf: You guys opened 6 centers this year -- this quarter and you had 2 tuck-in acquisitions. So I was just curious what the cadence might look like for the rest of the year. And then when it comes to that M&A, I know you've talked about recently how some of the larger businesses in that kind of $200 million to $250 million range maybe had higher valuations than private markets. I mean, are you seeing anything differently there? David Bourdon: Peter, this is Dave. I'll take that. So in regards to the first quarter, firstly, you had your facts right. So we opened 6 centers, and we had the 2 tuck-in acquisitions. In regards to the rest of the year, what we've talked about is opening up 20 to 30 centers for the full year. We're still on pace for that. And then from an M&A perspective, we have a strong pipeline of tuck-in opportunities that we're evaluating. Obviously, there's a lot of moving pieces there. So I don't want to make any commitments in regards to the timing on those. But we do expect the tuck-in acquisitions to be a meaningful part of our geographic expansion strategy going forward and we do intend to do those on a regular basis. In regards to the overall M&A environment, no change to what we said last quarter, and that is we see meaningful opportunity in the tuck-in type acquisitions, or down market. We do not see meaningful opportunity for us -- as you get into that next or the biggest tier of our competitors that are in that $200 million, $250 million of annual revenue. And the reason we don't see an opportunity there is because there's a lot of geographic overlap between us and them. And so there's just not meaningful synergy or value creation in the combining of those practices with us. It's just much more financially effective for us to grow organically rather than trying to do an acquisition of one of those larger practices. Peter Warendorf: Got it. Okay. And then on the visit rate side, you had a nice bump in 1Q, up about 3% year-over-year. Just curious, I think that last year, you had the last customer pricing impact that came through in March. So maybe there was a bit of a headwind still in 1Q. How should we think about the cadence of that over the remainder of the year? Ryan McGroarty: Yes. So Peter, again, your facts set is right. So we're actually really pleased with the TRPV. You referenced the 3% year-over-year. So we did $163 from a TRPV perspective. So sequentially, that grew $3.80. This is key as we think about just rate in general. This is one of the reasons why we raised our revenue $25 million and also EBITDA by the $15 million for the full year was on the strength of rate increases. As we think about the balance of the year, we're still guiding to low to mid-single digit as it relates to rate. We still have some work to do as it relates to kind of executing on the rate and payer negotiations. I would kind of frame the overall environment consistent to like our prior calls just around it's very constructive, and we're getting really good response from the payers. So again, when you think about this year, guiding to low to mid-single digits. And again, it's also a critical component to our long-term growth algorithm kind of in that same range, low to mid-single digits. So we really like the momentum that we're seeing there. Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Scott Schoenhaus from KeyBanc Capital Markets. Scott Schoenhaus: Almost got it there. Congrats on the strong start of the year, really firing on all cylinders here, team. My question is a follow-up on the 6 de novo adds. Are those -- historically, you talked about trying to build density in metropolitan areas. Is that the way we should be thinking about those adds? And then when you're starting a de novo clinic, can you talk about the productivity ramp up? It seems like these technology investments have caused your productivity ramp to be quite quick. Maybe just walk us through your de novo strategy and the productivity on these de novo adds. David Bourdon: Scott, it's Dave. I'll take that one. So in regards to the de novos or the building of new centers, they come in a lot of different flavors. So you could have a center going in, in an adjacent town where we already have an existing center, already have existing referral partnerships, things like that. And so that kind of center is going to ramp very quickly. Those are the majority -- when we talk about the 20 to 30 centers that will build this year, that's the majority of the centers that are being added. We also are placing some de novos in brand-new geographies, because again, our preferred entry is through M&A rather than going pure de novo. That's a minority of the centers that we're adding in that 20 to 30. And those are going to have a slower ramp than the first category that I mentioned. That you're looking at more of 12 to 24 months to getting to breakeven. But again those are important beachheads that are going to be the foundation for growth in the years to come. Scott Schoenhaus: That's helpful. And then this is sort of an industry broad general question. You've seen a lot of industry changes and shifts, whether it be a large D2C behavioral health company trying to get into the payer market. And then a company in the behavioral health space that was acquired by a large provider network. May be talk about is that -- are you seeing impacts on either recruitment or patient perspective or rate perspective from the payers? Maybe talk about what's changing in the competitive landscape and if it's impacting you guys at all? David Bourdon: This is Dave. I'll take that one. In regards to the overall industry, you always have to start from the framing of it is still a highly, highly fragmented industry. And so you should expect that there will be consolidation in the years to come. And I think we're in the early days of consolidation. And I really like where LifeStance is positioned to be able to take advantage of those trends going forward. And because the industry is so fragmented, because there's such unmet demand from patients, we're not seeing any changes in regards to new patient volumes, clinician hiring, things like that. And you're seeing that in our results in the first quarter with really being strong across pretty much every aspect of the business. Operator: That will conclude our question-and-answer session. And I will now turn the call back over to Dave Bourdon, Chief Executive Officer, for closing remarks. Please go ahead. David Bourdon: Thank you, operator. I want to take a moment to recognize our nearly 11,000 mission-driven teammates. Every day, you show up for our patients, often at some of the hardest moments in their lives, and you do it with extraordinary compassion, professionalism and resilience. And I'm deeply grateful for what you do. Mental healthcare has never been more essential. We're proud of the difference LifeStance is making today, and we're even more committed to expanding our reach so we can help millions more people get the high-quality care they deserve. Thank you for joining us today. Operator, that will conclude our call. Thank you. Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect. 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