Patten & Patten Inc. TN Sells 73 Shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

Patten & Patten Inc. TN cut its position in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) by 0.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 14,307 shares of the company’s stock after selling 73 shares during the quarter. Patten & Patten Inc. TN’s holdings in HCA Healthcare were worth $4,294,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC lifted its position in HCA Healthcare by 322.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,141,769 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,276,909,000 after purchasing an additional 2,397,883 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in HCA Healthcare by 120.1% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 873,775 shares of the company’s stock worth $262,264,000 after acquiring an additional 476,756 shares in the last quarter. Meritage Group LP purchased a new stake in HCA Healthcare during the third quarter valued at about $150,548,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of HCA Healthcare during the 4th quarter valued at about $74,121,000. Finally, Canoe Financial LP lifted its position in HCA Healthcare by 226,952.9% in the 4th quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 231,594 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,513,000 after buying an additional 231,492 shares during the last quarter. 62.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Jennifer Berres sold 9,533 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.59, for a total value of $3,075,250.47. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 15,412 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,971,757.08. This represents a 38.22 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on HCA shares. Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $380.00 to $370.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 27th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $405.00 to $384.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Truist Financial dropped their target price on HCA Healthcare from $430.00 to $390.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of HCA Healthcare from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $400.00 to $320.00 in a research report on Monday, November 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $385.67.

HCA Healthcare Price Performance

Shares of HCA stock opened at $319.82 on Friday. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a twelve month low of $289.98 and a twelve month high of $417.14. The stock has a market cap of $78.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.56, a PEG ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.68. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 69.07. The business’s fifty day moving average is $319.00 and its 200 day moving average is $345.26.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 24th. The company reported $6.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.03 by $0.19. HCA Healthcare had a net margin of 8.16% and a return on equity of 586.47%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $5.90 EPS. Research analysts expect that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 24.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be given a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 17th. This is a positive change from HCA Healthcare’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. HCA Healthcare’s payout ratio is currently 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.