HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) Trading Down 3.9%

Shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) traded down 3.9% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $327.31 and last traded at $329.85. 734,334 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 31% from the average session volume of 1,062,861 shares. The stock had previously closed at $343.29.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on the stock. 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. Baird R W upgraded shares of HCA Healthcare to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of HCA Healthcare from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, June 16th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of HCA Healthcare from $322.00 to $329.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Robert W. Baird initiated coverage on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $396.00 target price for the company. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $326.53.

HCA Healthcare Stock Performance

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 firm has a fifty day moving average price of $325.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $317.82. The stock has a market cap of $84.15 billion, a PE ratio of 16.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.69.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $5.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.01 by $0.35. HCA Healthcare had a return on equity of 674.49% and a net margin of 8.20%. The firm had revenue of $17.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.81 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $4.93 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 20.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.82%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. HCA Healthcare’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.16%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Jeffrey E. Cohen sold 1,650 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $313.00, for a total transaction of $516,450.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 5,185 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,622,905. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Jeffrey E. Cohen sold 1,650 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $313.00, for a total transaction of $516,450.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 5,185 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,622,905. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Michael S. Cuffe sold 1,600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.00, for a total value of $494,400.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 34,124 shares in the company, valued at $10,544,316. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 12,397 shares of company stock valued at $3,921,929. Company insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HCA Healthcare

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in HCA Healthcare in the 4th quarter valued at about $694,985,000. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its stake in HCA Healthcare by 35.7% in the 4th quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 4,503,918 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,219,121,000 after buying an additional 1,183,890 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in HCA Healthcare by 57.5% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 2,792,377 shares of the company’s stock valued at $931,342,000 after buying an additional 1,019,750 shares in the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC lifted its stake in HCA Healthcare by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 11,404,003 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,086,836,000 after buying an additional 456,738 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in HCA Healthcare by 230.5% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 553,225 shares of the company’s stock valued at $149,747,000 after buying an additional 385,854 shares in the last quarter. 62.73% of the stock is 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.