HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) Sets New 1-Year High at $403.42

Shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) hit a new 52-week high on Monday . The company traded as high as $403.42 and last traded at $402.89, with a volume of 425499 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $394.68.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on HCA. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $392.00 target price on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research note on Monday, August 19th. Robert W. Baird assumed coverage on HCA Healthcare in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $396.00 price objective for the company. Wolfe Research raised HCA Healthcare to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $345.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on HCA Healthcare from $359.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 28th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $359.89.

HCA Healthcare Stock Performance

The firm has a 50 day moving average of $362.19 and a two-hundred day moving average of $338.12. The stock has a market cap of $105.66 billion, a PE ratio of 20.05, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 27.11, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 0.94.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The company reported $5.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.97 by $0.53. The firm had revenue of $17.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.05 billion. HCA Healthcare had a return on equity of 553.13% and a net margin of 8.40%. The firm’s revenue was up 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $4.29 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 22.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th will be given a dividend of $0.66 per share. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 16th. HCA Healthcare’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.16%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Michael S. Cuffe sold 8,358 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $385.42, for a total value of $3,221,340.36. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 29,678 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,438,494.76. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, SVP Kathryn A. Torres sold 1,857 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $355.05, for a total value of $659,327.85. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 17,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,303,912.75. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Michael S. Cuffe sold 8,358 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $385.42, for a total value of $3,221,340.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 29,678 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,438,494.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 17,202 shares of company stock valued at $6,407,273 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of HCA. Norges Bank acquired a new position in HCA Healthcare during the fourth quarter worth $694,985,000. Royal Bank of Canada grew its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 35.7% in the fourth quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 4,503,918 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,219,121,000 after purchasing an additional 1,183,890 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 57.5% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 2,792,377 shares of the company’s stock valued at $931,342,000 after purchasing an additional 1,019,750 shares during the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 456,738 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lee Danner & Bass Inc. acquired a new stake in HCA Healthcare in the second quarter valued at $131,527,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.73% of the company’s stock.

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.