Applied Finance Capital Management LLC Buys 865 Shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

Key Points

• Applied Finance Capital Management LLC increased its stake in HCA Healthcare, Inc. by 27.2% in the 1st quarter, holding a total of 4,048 shares valued at approximately $1.4 million.
• Wall Street analysts have mixed ratings for HCA Healthcare, with eight firms rating it a hold, nine a buy, and two a strong buy, while the average price target stands at $399.46.
• HCA Healthcare reported a net margin of 8.07% and earnings per share of $6.84 for the last quarter, exceeding analyst expectations.

Applied Finance Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA - Free Report) by 27.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,048 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 865 shares during the period. Applied Finance Capital Management LLC's holdings in HCA Healthcare were worth $1,399,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Brown Advisory Inc. increased its position in HCA Healthcare by 53.9% in the first quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 4,630 shares of the company's stock worth $1,600,000 after buying an additional 1,622 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its position in HCA Healthcare by 26.9% in the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,141 shares of the company's stock worth $395,000 after buying an additional 242 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in HCA Healthcare by 17.6% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,931 shares of the company's stock worth $1,704,000 after buying an additional 737 shares during the period. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 2.5% during the first quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,314 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,491,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the period. Finally, Brighton Jones LLC acquired a new position in shares of HCA Healthcare during the fourth quarter valued at $1,021,000. 62.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on HCA shares. Barclays lowered their price target on HCA Healthcare from $416.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company raised HCA Healthcare from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $320.00 to $385.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Guggenheim began coverage on HCA Healthcare in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. They set a "neutral" rating for the company. Wall Street Zen raised HCA Healthcare from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, July 5th. Finally, Wolfe Research lowered HCA Healthcare from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a report on Monday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has given 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 $396.46.

HCA Healthcare Stock Up 2.0%

Shares of HCA stock traded up $6.99 on Wednesday, hitting $351.49. 922,892 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,601,806. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 69.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $84.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 1.47. The business has a 50-day moving average of $372.05 and a 200 day moving average of $346.40. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 25th. The company reported $6.84 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $18.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $18.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.50 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 24.98 EPS for the current year.

HCA Healthcare Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 16th will be given 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 0.82%. HCA Healthcare's payout ratio is 12.11%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Jon M. Foster sold 15,698 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owned 12,646 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,670,420.72. This trade represents a 55.38% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.30% 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.