HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) Receives $327.06 Consensus PT from Analysts

Shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eighteen brokerages that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, thirteen have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $327.06.

Several research firms have weighed in on HCA. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $303.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Robert W. Baird began coverage on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $396.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $367.00 to $376.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $330.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Baird R W upgraded shares of HCA Healthcare to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th.

HCA Healthcare Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:HCA opened at $322.16 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 29.26, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $84.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.06, a PEG ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.68. HCA Healthcare has a 1-year low of $215.96 and a 1-year high of $344.20. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $327.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $321.72.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $5.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.01 by $0.35. The firm had revenue of $17.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.81 billion. HCA Healthcare had a net margin of 8.20% and a return on equity of 674.49%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $4.93 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that HCA Healthcare will post 20.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th were given a dividend of $0.66 per share. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.82%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. HCA Healthcare’s dividend payout ratio is 13.16%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Kathryn A. Torres sold 1,863 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $326.18, for a total transaction of $607,673.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 19,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,397,042.16. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Kathryn A. Torres sold 1,863 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $326.18, for a total transaction of $607,673.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 19,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,397,042.16. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Kathryn A. Torres sold 973 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $312.00, for a total transaction of $303,576.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 22,365 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,977,880. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 12,397 shares of company stock valued at $3,921,929 in the last quarter. Insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in HCA. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board increased its stake in HCA Healthcare by 29.9% in the first quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 13,900 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,636,000 after acquiring an additional 3,200 shares during the period. Apexium Financial LP bought a new stake in HCA Healthcare in the fourth quarter valued at about $361,000. Sanders Capital LLC increased its stake in HCA Healthcare by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 11,404,003 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,086,836,000 after acquiring an additional 456,738 shares during the period. Todd Asset Management LLC increased its stake in HCA Healthcare by 17.2% in the fourth quarter. Todd Asset Management LLC now owns 226,563 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,326,000 after acquiring an additional 33,271 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV grew its stake in HCA Healthcare by 60.6% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 365,984 shares of the company’s stock worth $99,065,000 after buying an additional 138,146 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.73% of the company’s stock.

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.