HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) Trading Down 3.9%

HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) fell 3.9% during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $327.31 and last traded at $329.85. 734,334 shares traded hands 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.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on HCA. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $303.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Baird R W upgraded shares of HCA Healthcare to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Robert W. Baird began coverage on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $396.00 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of HCA Healthcare from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, June 16th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of HCA Healthcare from $356.00 to $367.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $326.53.

HCA Healthcare Stock Down 6.4 %

The company has a market cap of $84.15 billion, a PE ratio of 16.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.69. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 29.26. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $325.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $317.82.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last announced its quarterly 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 net margin of 8.20% and a return on equity of 674.49%. The company had revenue of $17.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.81 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $4.93 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 20.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th were paid a dividend of $0.66 per share. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.82%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. HCA Healthcare’s payout ratio is 13.16%.

Insider Activity at HCA Healthcare

In other HCA Healthcare news, EVP Michael S. Cuffe sold 1,600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.00, for a total transaction of $494,400.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 34,124 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,544,316. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other HCA Healthcare news, EVP Michael S. Cuffe sold 1,600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.00, for a total transaction of $494,400.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 34,124 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,544,316. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Jeffrey E. Cohen sold 1,650 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $313.00, for a total transaction of $516,450.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 5,185 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,622,905. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, 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 large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of HCA Healthcare by 0.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,989,683 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,666,569,000 after acquiring an additional 60,304 shares in the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC increased its stake in HCA Healthcare by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 11,404,003 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,086,836,000 after buying an additional 456,738 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in HCA Healthcare by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,186,129 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,757,181,000 after buying an additional 170,560 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada increased its stake in HCA Healthcare by 35.7% during the 4th quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 4,503,918 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,219,121,000 after buying an additional 1,183,890 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its stake in HCA Healthcare by 57.5% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 2,792,377 shares of the company’s stock worth $931,342,000 after buying an additional 1,019,750 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.73% of the company’s stock.

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.