HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) Plans Dividend Increase – $0.72 Per Share

HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, January 27th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be given a dividend of 0.72 per share on Monday, March 31st. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 17th. This is a boost from HCA Healthcare’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66.

HCA Healthcare has raised its dividend payment by an average of 11.2% annually over the last three years. HCA Healthcare has a payout ratio of 9.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect HCA Healthcare to earn $24.77 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.64 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 10.7%.

HCA Healthcare Stock Up 6.1 %

HCA Healthcare stock traded up $19.11 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $332.18. The stock had a trading volume of 2,028,105 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,721,687. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 48.71, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.12. HCA Healthcare has a 1-year low of $281.61 and a 1-year high of $417.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $84.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.64. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $313.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $353.13.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 24th. The company reported $6.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.03 by $0.19. HCA Healthcare had a return on equity of 520.98% and a net margin of 8.52%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $5.90 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that HCA Healthcare will post 21.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at HCA Healthcare

In other HCA Healthcare news, insider Erol R. Akdamar sold 2,900 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $353.00, for a total transaction of $1,023,700.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 6,843 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,415,579. The trade was a 29.76 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Phillip G. Billington sold 3,897 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.00, for a total value of $1,363,950.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 52,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,445,700. This represents a 6.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on HCA. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on HCA Healthcare from $405.00 to $384.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 price target on shares of HCA Healthcare in a report on Monday. StockNews.com lowered HCA Healthcare from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $380.00 to $370.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Finally, KeyCorp cut their price target on shares of HCA Healthcare from $420.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $382.19.

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.