Third-quarter revenue at AMN Healthcare Services Inc. (NYSE: AMN) fell 2.8%, but the healthcare staffing firm reported travel nurse revenue rose and it is seeing demand improve.

CEO Susan Salka stated the company is seeing growing demand, especially for nurse staffing. Salka also said cost controls helped bolster AMN’s results.

“In the spring when the pandemic initially disrupted regular healthcare, we began to reduce our SG&A costs in response to an expected temporary reduction in revenue,” Salka said. “These cost controls, along with better-than-expected revenue, resulted in a very strong financial performance in the third quarter.”

AMN reported travel nurse revenue rose 12% year over year, but allied revenue fell 28% because of continued weakness in therapy demand. Total revenue of the two business lines are reported together.

Revenue by segment

Locum tenens revenue, part of physician and leadership solutions, fell 19% year over year to $68 million.

Technology and workforce solutions revenue jumped with the increase driven by the company’s acquisitions of Stratus Video and b4health, a float-pool management technology solution and vendor management system. Revenue in this segment grew 8% when measured on an organic basis.

Guidance

AMN forecast fourth-quarter revenue to be flat to down 2% year over year. Travel nurse staffing revenue, however, is expected to rise 15% while allied revenue is expected to fall by 15%. Physician and leadership revenue is expected to be down from the prior year by 26% to 28%. Its technology and workforce solutions segment revenue is expected to rise approximately 150% because of the acquisitions.

Share price and market cap

Shares in AMN were down 6.15% to $64.51 as of 11:59 a.m. Eastern time; shares were trading 27.70% below their 52-week high. The company had a market cap of $3.08 billion.