HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) Reaches New 1-Year High Following Analyst Upgrade

HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) shares hit a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $303.00 to $315.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. HCA Healthcare traded as high as $334.49 and last traded at $333.53, with a volume of 810248 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $331.69.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of HCA Healthcare from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $277.00 to $301.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of HCA Healthcare from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of HCA Healthcare from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $271.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, December 11th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $308.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays assumed coverage on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $356.00 price objective for the company. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $311.47.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 876 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $330.25, for a total transaction of $289,299.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 1,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $520,474. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 344 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $321.97, for a total value of $110,757.68. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 2,452 shares in the company, valued at approximately $789,470.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 876 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $330.25, for a total transaction of $289,299.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $520,474. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 14,840 shares of company stock worth $4,588,869 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HCA Healthcare

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of HCA. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust increased its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 461 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the period. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 26.7% during the 4th quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC now owns 166 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital raised its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 2,527 shares of the company’s stock valued at $711,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. raised its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. now owns 981 shares of the company’s stock worth $266,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the period. Finally, Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV raised its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 19.9% in the 4th quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 253 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.73% of the company’s stock.

HCA Healthcare Stock Performance

The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $309.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $272.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 35.07. The company has a market cap of $88.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.64.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The company reported $5.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.05 by $0.85. HCA Healthcare had a net margin of 8.07% and a return on equity of 996.30%. The company had revenue of $17.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.51 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $4.64 earnings per share. HCA Healthcare’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 20.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th will be issued a $0.66 dividend. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.79%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 14th. This is a boost from HCA Healthcare’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. HCA Healthcare’s dividend payout ratio is 13.91%.

HCA Healthcare announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, January 30th that permits the company to repurchase $6.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to buy up to 7.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.