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CCRN
Cross Country Healthcare, Inc. · Industrials - Healthcare Staffing
$13.17
+0.53% this month
VERSUS
COMPARE
AMN
AMN Healthcare Services, Inc. · Industrials - Healthcare Staffing
$30.98
+15.08% this month
Scoreboard verdict
Across AI score, momentum, valuation, upside, operating margin
CCRN
1
AMN
3
AMN LEADS 3/5
Comparison scoreboard
AMN LEADS 3/5
AI Score
CCRN 24.3
AMN 26.0
1Y Return
CCRN -7.58%
AMN +38.61%
Fwd P/E
CCRN 47.04
AMN 28.53
Target Up.
CCRN -4.33%
AMN -9.16%
Op. Margin
CCRN N/A
AMN N/A
Metrics last refreshed: 6/20/2026
Quick take

CCRN vs AMN Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside

CCRN (Cross Country Healthcare) and AMN (AMN Healthcare) are both travel healthcare staffing companies navigating the same post-COVID normalization cycle — both experienced extraordinary revenue and margin peaks during 2020-2022 when hospital demand for travel nurses skyrocketed, and both face severe post-COVID revenue decline as hospitals return to normal staffing patterns. AMN is significantly larger with managed service programs providing more contractual stability; Cross Country is smaller with more exposure to spot market travel nurse pricing.

CCRN vs AMN is mid-size travel healthcare staffing recovery play (Cross Country Healthcare's travel nurse and allied health platform recovering from post-COVID volume and rate normalization with technology-enabled matching and diversified staffing segments) versus largest U.S. healthcare staffing company with managed service programs (AMN Healthcare's scale and hospital system relationships providing more contractual revenue stability during normalization while both companies navigate the multi-year cycle bottom) — smaller more exposed staffing versus largest with managed services.

Live analysis · updated 6/20/2026

AMN holds the edge across 3 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. AMN leads on both 1-year return (+38.61%) and forward P/E (28.53x vs 47.04x for CCRN), a relatively favorable combination of momentum and valuation. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for CCRN (-4.33%) than for AMN (-9.16%).

Normalized 1Y performance
CCRN
AMN
Recent returns
CCRN
AMN
Analyst price targets & sentiment
CCRN · 5 analysts
STRONG BUYHOLDSTRONG SELL
Hold (3.0/5.0)
Price target range
analyst low$10.00
analyst high$13.25
analyst mean$12.60
current price$13.17
-4.3% upside to analyst mean
AMN · 7 analysts
STRONG BUYHOLDSTRONG SELL
Hold (2.6/5.0)
Price target range
analyst low$22.00
analyst high$36.00
analyst mean$28.14
current price$30.98
-9.2% upside to analyst mean
Who should consider this stock?
CCRN may suit investors who:
  • Believe the travel nurse cycle has bottomed and that Cross Country's recovery will be faster than consensus expects given the structural nursing shortage supporting above-trend staffing volumes
  • Accept Cross Country's smaller scale and higher spot market exposure as offset by a lower valuation multiple versus AMN that may provide more relative upside in a staffing upcycle
  • Value Cross Country's technology investment as enabling more efficient matching that reduces cost-to-fill versus traditional staffing competitors
AMN may suit investors who:
  • Want the largest, most diversified healthcare staffing company with managed service programs providing more contractual revenue stability than pure spot-market travel nurse competitors
  • Value AMN's physician locum tenens business as an additional revenue stream with a different cyclical profile than travel nursing that provides some earnings diversification
  • Believe AMN's scale gives it sustainable advantages in managed service vendor relationships with major hospital systems that smaller competitors cannot replicate
Performance & AI score
MetricCCRNAMN
AI score24.326.0
AI rank#3182#2663
Latest close$13.17$30.98
1M return+0.53%+15.08%
6M return+64.63%+90.65%
1Y return-7.58%+38.61%
$10,000 invested — hypothetical growth (dividends reinvested)

How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?

PeriodCCRNAMN
1Y ago$9.24K (-7.6%)
started 2025-06-18
$13.86K (+38.6%)
started 2025-06-18
5Y ago$7.39K (-26.1%)
started 2021-06-18
$3.3K (-67.0%)
started 2021-06-18
10Y ago$9.52K (-4.8%)
started 2016-06-20
$7.83K (-21.7%)
started 2016-06-20

Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.

Valuation & upside potential
MetricCCRNAMN
Market cap$425.48M$1.2B
Trailing P/EN/AN/A
Forward P/E47.0428.53
Price/Sales0.420.35
EV/Revenue0.320.42
Analyst target$12.60$28.14
Target upside-4.33%-9.16%
Growth, profitability & risk
MetricCCRNAMN
Revenue growth-17.80%99.90%
Earnings growthN/AN/A
EPS growthN/AN/A
FCF margin+4.70%+19.64%
Operating marginN/AN/A
Profit margin-9.84%-0.95%
ROIC proxy-26.98%-4.54%
Return on equity-26.98%-4.54%
Dividend yield0.00%0.00%
Beta0.450.44
Debt/equity0.65108.99
Current ratio3.291.09
Quick ratio3.200.96
Drawdown & downside risk

Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.

1Y risk snapshot
CCRN max drawdown47.16%
AMN max drawdown32.44%
CCRN max wkly drop29.43%
AMN max wkly drop22.01%
5Y risk snapshot
CCRN max drawdown80.24%
AMN max drawdown88.11%
CCRN max wkly drop29.43%
AMN max wkly drop41.67%
10Y risk snapshot
CCRN max drawdown80.24%
AMN max drawdown88.11%
CCRN max wkly drop32.02%
AMN max wkly drop41.67%
Performance metrics by period
PeriodMetricCCRNAMN
1YGrowth-7.58%+38.61%
CAGR-7.58%+38.64%
Sharpe ratio0.050.74
Max drawdown47.16%32.44%
Max daily drop20.32%16.79%
Max wkly drop29.43%22.01%
5YGrowth-26.05%-66.99%
CAGR-5.86%-19.88%
Sharpe ratio0.10-0.25
Max drawdown80.24%88.11%
Max daily drop20.32%29.01%
Max wkly drop29.43%41.67%
10YGrowth-4.77%-21.67%
CAGR-0.49%-2.41%
Sharpe ratio0.190.09
Max drawdown80.24%88.11%
Max daily drop31.62%29.01%
Max wkly drop32.02%41.67%
Business comparison
CategoryCCRNAMN
CompanyCross Country Healthcare, Inc.AMN Healthcare Services, Inc.
SectorIndustrials - Healthcare StaffingIndustrials - Healthcare Staffing
IndustryN/AN/A
Core businessCross Country Healthcare is a leading healthcare staffing company providing temporary and permanent staffing solutions — primarily travel nurses (nurses who take 13-week contracts at hospitals nationwide), allied health professionals (physical therapists, imaging technicians, pharmacy technicians), and physician staffing. Cross Country operates a Talent Acquisition strategy connecting healthcare professionals with hospital and health system clients through technology-enabled matching.AMN Healthcare is the largest U.S. healthcare staffing company — providing travel nurse, allied health, physician locum tenens, and healthcare language services. AMN's scale enables it to work with virtually all major hospital systems (Kaiser Permanente, HCA, Ascension, CommonSpirit) as a preferred or exclusive vendor. AMN's workforce solutions include traditional staffing, managed service programs (managing hospitals' entire contingent labor), and predictive workforce analytics. AMN is approximately 3-4x larger than Cross Country by revenue.
Investor focusInvestors track Cross Country's revenue per travel nurse contract, nurse hours worked, the ratio of bill rate to pay rate (spread), client retention, and earnings recovery from the post-COVID travel nurse demand normalization.Investors track AMN's travel nurse volume and revenue per nurse, managed service program expansion (higher-value, more sticky workforce solutions), physician locum tenens recovery, and operating leverage from AMN's scale advantages versus smaller competitors.
CCRN strengths
  • Travel nurse market structural tailwinds from nursing shortage — the U.S. has a persistent nursing shortage projected to worsen; hospital capacity constraints and expanding healthcare demand create structural demand for flexible travel nurse staffing above permanent levels
  • Technology platform for nurse matching and placement — Cross Country's technology tools (ConnectMyHealth, staffing apps) improve the efficiency of matching nurses to available contracts, reducing time-to-fill and improving nurse satisfaction
  • Diversification across nurse, allied health, and physician staffing — multiple staffing segments reduce dependence on any single healthcare professional category
AMN strengths
  • Market leadership scale creates preferred vendor status with major health systems — AMN's size enables hospitals to designate AMN as a primary or sole workforce management vendor; managed service programs lock in multi-year contracts with minimum volumes
  • Managed service programs are higher value and more defensive than spot staffing — AMN's managed service providers (MSPs) manage the entire contingent labor process for large hospital systems; this embedded relationship is much stickier than transactional staffing
  • Physician locum tenens and language services provide revenue diversification — AMN's physician staffing and language interpretation services offer revenue sources less correlated to travel nurse market cycles
Risks to watch — CCRN
  • Post-COVID travel nurse rate normalization severe — travel nurse bill rates tripled during COVID (hospitals paid premium rates for emergency pandemic staffing); bill rates have normalized significantly from COVID peaks, compressing revenue per nurse; revenue declined dramatically from 2022 peaks
  • Hospital staffing budget pressure driving vendor consolidation — hospitals that relied on expensive travel nurses during COVID are aggressively reducing contract labor costs; some hospitals prefer managing fewer vendor relationships (benefiting largest staffers) while others build their own internal float pools
  • Competition from direct-to-nurse platform startups — digital staffing platforms (Aya Healthcare, Trusted Health, ShiftKey) are challenging traditional staffing agencies with technology-first, lower-cost models
Risks to watch — AMN
  • COVID travel nurse spike created revenue cliff in normalization — AMN's revenue peaked at $5.7B in 2022 during COVID; normalization back to 2019-level volumes represents a severe revenue decline from peak; the magnitude of normalization was larger than anticipated
  • Hospital system clients pushing for permanent workforce solutions rather than expensive travel staff — the $15,000-25,000 weekly cost of travel nurses during COVID shock health systems into investments in permanent staff, internal float pools, and international nurse recruitment; permanent solutions reduce long-term travel nurse demand
  • Managed service program pricing pressure as market normalizes — when hospital demand for contingent labor declines, AMN's managed service clients renegotiate terms; pricing pressure at scale is harder to resist for AMN given client concentration
Frequently asked questions
A travel nurse is a registered nurse (RN) who takes temporary contracts (typically 13-week assignments) at hospitals and healthcare facilities around the country rather than working as a permanent employee. The travel nursing model: Travel nursing agencies (AMN, Cross Country, Aya Healthcare) recruit nurses and match them with hospital clients that need temporary staff. The nurse signs a contract with the agency; the agency places them at the hospital; the hospital pays the agency a 'bill rate' (typically $80-150+/hour during normal markets, up to $200+/hour during COVID); the agency pays the nurse a combination of hourly wages and tax-free housing/travel stipends. Travel nurses earn significantly more than staff nurses — $2,000-5,000+/week total compensation packages versus $1,000-1,800/week for typical staff nurses. Why hospitals use travel nurses: covering nurse vacancies while recruiting permanent staff; seasonal volume spikes (flu season, summer surgeries); specialty skill gaps; post-pandemic staffing shortages. The COVID pandemic created extraordinary demand — hospitals flooded with COVID patients needed thousands of additional nurses immediately, bidding up travel nurse rates to unprecedented levels.
AI Prediction SignalNext 5 trading days
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CCRN
+2.8%BUY
AMN
+1.1%HOLD

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