Blueshift Asset Management LLC Purchases New Position in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

Blueshift Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 2,536 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $761,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of HCA. GSA Capital Partners LLP purchased a new stake in HCA Healthcare during the third quarter worth $567,000. Quest Partners LLC lifted its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 384.9% during the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 3,171 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,289,000 after buying an additional 2,517 shares during the period. Pathstone Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 23.1% during the third quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 27,589 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,213,000 after buying an additional 5,175 shares during the period. Prospera Financial Services Inc lifted its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 204.2% during the third quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc now owns 2,917 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,186,000 after buying an additional 1,958 shares during the period. Finally, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise increased its position in shares of HCA Healthcare by 25.6% during the third quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 12,187 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,953,000 after purchasing an additional 2,481 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.73% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Jennifer Berres sold 9,533 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.59, for a total transaction of $3,075,250.47. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 15,412 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,971,757.08. The trade was a 38.22 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on HCA. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on HCA Healthcare from $405.00 to $384.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th. KeyCorp reduced their price target on HCA Healthcare from $420.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays reduced their price target on HCA Healthcare from $392.00 to $366.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded HCA Healthcare from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their target price for the company from $400.00 to $320.00 in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Truist Financial cut their target price on HCA Healthcare from $430.00 to $390.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $385.67.

HCA Healthcare Trading Up 1.3 %

HCA stock opened at $334.42 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 69.07. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a 52-week low of $289.98 and a 52-week high of $417.14. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $320.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $343.97. The firm has a market cap of $82.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.22, a PEG ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.68.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The company reported $6.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.03 by $0.19. HCA Healthcare had a return on equity of 586.47% and a net margin of 8.16%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $5.90 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 24.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, March 17th will be issued a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.86%. This is a boost from HCA Healthcare’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 17th. HCA Healthcare’s payout ratio is presently 13.11%.

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.