Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Takes $25.67 Million Position in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new stake in shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 85,537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $25,674,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HCA. Barclays PLC raised its stake in HCA Healthcare by 22.3% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 571,975 shares of the company's stock valued at $232,467,000 after purchasing an additional 104,409 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC increased its stake in HCA Healthcare by 137.7% in the 4th quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 1,569 shares of the company's stock worth $471,000 after acquiring an additional 909 shares during the last quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC increased its stake in HCA Healthcare by 14.3% in the 4th quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC now owns 1,118 shares of the company's stock worth $336,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in HCA Healthcare by 8.9% in the 4th quarter. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,813 shares of the company's stock worth $844,000 after acquiring an additional 230 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Red Door Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in HCA Healthcare by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Red Door Wealth Management LLC now owns 21,659 shares of the company's stock worth $6,501,000 after acquiring an additional 321 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.73% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Baird R W downgraded HCA Healthcare from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Robert W. Baird reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $336.00 target price (down previously from $396.00) on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on HCA Healthcare from $384.00 to $376.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Guggenheim initiated coverage on HCA Healthcare in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. They set a "neutral" rating on the stock. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded HCA Healthcare from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $385.47.

HCA Healthcare Trading Up 0.8%

HCA stock traded up $2.94 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $381.38. 518,343 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,436,830. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $349.48 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $329.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 69.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $91.75 billion, a PE ratio of 17.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.46. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a 1-year low of $289.98 and a 1-year high of $417.14.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $6.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $5.75 by $0.70. HCA Healthcare had a return on equity of 586.47% and a net margin of 8.16%. The business had revenue of $18.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $18.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $5.36 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 24.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. HCA Healthcare's payout ratio is 12.81%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other HCA Healthcare news, COO Jon M. Foster sold 15,698 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $369.32, for a total transaction of $5,797,585.36. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 12,646 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,670,420.72. The trade was a 55.38% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.