HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) Announces $0.66 Quarterly Dividend

HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, April 26th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.66 per share on Friday, June 28th. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.86%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th.

HCA Healthcare has increased its dividend by an average of 50.8% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 4 consecutive years. HCA Healthcare has a payout ratio of 11.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect HCA Healthcare to earn $22.91 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.64 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 11.5%.

HCA Healthcare Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of HCA Healthcare stock opened at $306.60 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $323.94 and a two-hundred day moving average of $295.00. The stock has a market cap of $81.09 billion, a PE ratio of 16.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.65. HCA Healthcare has a 12-month low of $215.96 and a 12-month high of $335.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 35.07.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.81 billion. HCA Healthcare had a return on equity of 996.30% and a net margin of 8.07%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $4.93 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that HCA Healthcare will post 20.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at HCA Healthcare

In related news, SVP Sammie S. Mosier sold 1,645 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.00, for a total transaction of $513,240.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 7,646 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,385,552. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Michael S. Cuffe sold 3,200 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $306.79, for a total value of $981,728.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 24,929 shares in the company, valued at $7,647,967.91. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Sammie S. Mosier sold 1,645 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $312.00, for a total transaction of $513,240.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 7,646 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,385,552. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 14,840 shares of company stock valued at $4,588,869 over the last three months. 1.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

HCA Healthcare announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Tuesday, January 30th that permits the company to buyback $6.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 7.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on HCA shares. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on HCA Healthcare from $330.00 to $359.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of HCA Healthcare from $308.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Barclays began coverage on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $356.00 target price for the company. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded HCA Healthcare from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $310.88.

About HCA Healthcare

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.