HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) Price Target Raised to $378.00

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) had its price objective raised by Royal Bank of Canada from $329.00 to $378.00 in a research note published on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

HCA has been the subject of several other research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an overweight rating and set a $335.00 price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Robert W. Baird started coverage on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. They issued an outperform rating and a $396.00 price target for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of HCA Healthcare from $327.00 to $332.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. StockNews.com raised shares of HCA Healthcare from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Monday, July 1st. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $367.00 to $376.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $339.72.

HCA Healthcare Stock Up 0.6 %

HCA Healthcare stock opened at $354.78 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 27.11, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.06. HCA Healthcare has a 52-week low of $215.96 and a 52-week high of $356.30. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $330.12 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $323.11. The firm has a market cap of $92.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.69, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.68.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The company reported $5.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.97 by $0.53. HCA Healthcare had a net margin of 8.40% and a return on equity of 553.13%. The firm had revenue of $17.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $4.29 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that HCA Healthcare will post 22.43 EPS for the current year.

HCA Healthcare Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th will be paid a $0.66 dividend. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 16th. HCA Healthcare’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.16%.

Insider Activity at HCA Healthcare

In related news, SVP Kathryn A. Torres sold 973 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.00, for a total value of $303,576.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 22,365 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,977,880. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Kathryn A. Torres sold 973 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.00, for a total transaction of $303,576.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 22,365 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,977,880. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Kathryn A. Torres sold 1,863 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $326.18, for a total value of $607,673.34. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 19,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,397,042.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 12,397 shares of company stock worth $3,921,929. Company insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of HCA. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in 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 buying an additional 60,304 shares in the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC boosted its stake in HCA Healthcare by 4.2% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in HCA Healthcare by 1.7% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its stake 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 worth $1,219,121,000 after buying an additional 1,183,890 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors boosted its stake in HCA Healthcare by 57.5% in the first 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.