HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) Shares Down 0.9%

HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) shares were down 0.9% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $310.15 and last traded at $311.03. Approximately 1,511,037 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 43% from the average daily volume of 1,058,563 shares. The stock had previously closed at $313.89.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on HCA shares. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $315.00 price target on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. StockNews.com cut HCA Healthcare from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on HCA Healthcare from $303.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered HCA Healthcare from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $277.00 to $301.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their target price on HCA Healthcare from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, HCA Healthcare has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $314.05.

HCA Healthcare Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $78.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.65, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 35.07. The company’s 50-day moving average is $320.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $280.94.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The company reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.05 by $0.85. HCA Healthcare had a net margin of 8.07% and a return on equity of 996.30%. The firm had revenue of $17.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.51 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $4.64 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 20.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.66 dividend. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This is a boost from HCA Healthcare’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. HCA Healthcare’s payout ratio is 13.91%.

HCA Healthcare announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, January 30th that authorizes the company to repurchase $6.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 7.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Sammie S. Mosier sold 1,645 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $312.00, for a total value of $513,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 7,646 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,385,552. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, SVP Sammie S. Mosier sold 1,645 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $312.00, for a total value of $513,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 7,646 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,385,552. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 876 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $330.25, for a total transaction of $289,299.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 1,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $520,474. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 14,840 shares of company stock valued at $4,588,869. 1.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. RB Capital Management LLC grew its position in HCA Healthcare by 25.9% in the first quarter. RB Capital Management LLC now owns 2,432 shares of the company’s stock worth $610,000 after acquiring an additional 501 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in HCA Healthcare by 18.6% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 11,035 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,766,000 after acquiring an additional 1,730 shares in the last quarter. Prudential PLC purchased a new position in HCA Healthcare in the first quarter worth $1,083,000. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in HCA Healthcare by 1.3% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 4,499 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,128,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in HCA Healthcare in the first quarter worth $248,000. 62.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

HCA Healthcare Company Profile

HCA Healthcare, Inc, through its subsidiaries, owns and operates hospitals and related healthcare entities in the United States. It operates general and acute care hospitals that offers medical and surgical services, including inpatient care, intensive care, cardiac care, diagnostic, and emergency services; and outpatient services, such as outpatient surgery, laboratory, radiology, respiratory therapy, cardiology, and physical therapy.