Affinity Investment Advisors LLC Purchases Shares of 692 HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

Key Points

• Affinity Investment Advisors LLC acquired 692 shares of HCA Healthcare, valued at approximately $239,000, as noted in their latest SEC filing.
• Several hedge funds significantly increased their holdings in HCA Healthcare during the first quarter, with GAMMA Investing LLC leading the charge by increasing its stake by an astounding 40,527.3%.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.72 per share, with an ex-dividend date set for September 16th, yielding an annualized dividend of 0.7%.

Affinity Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 692 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $239,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of HCA. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 40,527.3% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,703,907 shares of the company's stock valued at $5,887,850,000 after acquiring an additional 1,699,713 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in HCA Healthcare in the 1st quarter worth approximately $569,217,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 6,237.9% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,350,933 shares of the company's stock worth $466,815,000 after buying an additional 1,329,618 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 49.1% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,781,459 shares of the company's stock worth $615,583,000 after buying an additional 587,036 shares during the period. Finally, Two Sigma Investments LP increased its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 12,016.0% in the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 467,437 shares of the company's stock worth $140,301,000 after buying an additional 463,579 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.73% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on HCA. Wolfe Research lowered HCA Healthcare from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $385.00 to $375.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Barclays lowered their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $416.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $380.00 to $423.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on HCA Healthcare from $404.00 to $401.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $398.58.

HCA Healthcare Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of HCA stock opened at $395.83 on Friday. The stock's fifty day moving average is $370.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $351.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 69.07, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $92.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.64, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.39. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $289.98 and a fifty-two week high of $417.14.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 25th. The company reported $6.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $6.20 by $0.64. HCA Healthcare had a negative return on equity of 7,363.11% and a net margin of 8.21%. The company had revenue of $18.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $5.50 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 24.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 16th will be paid a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 16th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. HCA Healthcare's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.11%.

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.

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