HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) Price Target Cut to $360.00 by Analysts at TD Cowen

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) had its price target trimmed by TD Cowen from $371.00 to $360.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the stock.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of HCA Healthcare from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of HCA Healthcare from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and upped their target price for the stock from $277.00 to $301.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of HCA Healthcare from $303.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. StockNews.com raised shares of HCA Healthcare from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of HCA Healthcare from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, HCA Healthcare presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $316.59.

HCA Healthcare Stock Performance

Shares of HCA Healthcare stock opened at $309.80 on Tuesday. HCA Healthcare has a 52 week low of $215.96 and a 52 week high of $335.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $81.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.44, a PEG ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 29.26, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.16. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $323.43 and a two-hundred day moving average of $296.11.

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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.81 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $4.93 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that HCA Healthcare will post 20.58 EPS for the current year.

HCA Healthcare Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be issued a $0.66 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.85%. HCA Healthcare’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.16%.

HCA Healthcare declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, January 30th that authorizes the company to repurchase $6.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 7.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at HCA Healthcare

In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 876 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $330.25, for a total value of $289,299.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $520,474. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 876 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $520,474. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 652 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.04, for a total transaction of $203,450.08. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 290 shares in the company, valued at approximately $90,491.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 7,779 shares of company stock valued at $2,421,814 in the last three months. 1.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of HCA Healthcare

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sanders Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 456,738 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 170,560 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its position 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 valued at $1,219,121,000 after buying an additional 1,183,890 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in HCA Healthcare in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $694,985,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in HCA Healthcare by 3.2% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,152,419 shares of the company’s stock valued at $529,452,000 after buying an additional 67,332 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.73% of the company’s stock.

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.