Official announcements by LifePoint Hospitals Inc. confirmed that the group has managed to see a substantial rise in its fourth-quarter earnings, which surged to $38.0 Million, or $0.70 per share, from $28.0 Million, or $0.53, for
2008's fourth-quarter.

Earnings for continuing operations for the last three months of 2009 hiked by 26.5% to $38.6 Million or $0.71 a share, from the previous year's figure of $30.4 Million or $0.58 per share.

Expectations pegged by analysts stood at earnings of $0.60 a share.

Revenue managed to record a 10.7% growth as well, to $746.9 Million from $674.9 Million in the comparable period last year.

For the financial year 2010, the company now expects earnings per share to be in range of $2.50 to $2.80, on revenue in range of $3.1 Billion to $3.2 Billion.