Liberty Wealth Management LLC Purchases Shares of 42,713 HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

Key Points

• Liberty Wealth Management LLC has acquired a new stake in HCA Healthcare, purchasing 42,713 shares for around $14.76 million in the first quarter.
• HCA Healthcare reported $6.84 earnings per share for the most recent quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations of $6.20.
• The company announced a $0.72 quarterly dividend, with a yield of 0.8% and a payout ratio of 12.11%.

Liberty Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 42,713 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $14,759,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HCA. Brown Advisory Inc. grew its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 1,622 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 242 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 2.5% in the first quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,314 shares of the company's stock worth $1,491,000 after acquiring an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in HCA Healthcare by 17.6% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in HCA Healthcare by 145.3% during the first quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 3,550 shares of the company's stock worth $1,227,000 after buying an additional 2,103 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.73% of the company's stock.

HCA Healthcare Stock Up 0.8%

NYSE:HCA opened at $356.84 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $85.84 billion, a PE ratio of 15.00, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.39. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $370.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $347.42. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a 52-week low of $289.98 and a 52-week high of $417.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 69.07, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.98.

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

HCA Healthcare Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. HCA Healthcare's dividend payout ratio is presently 12.11%.

Insider Activity at HCA Healthcare

In other HCA Healthcare news, COO Jon M. Foster sold 15,698 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 in the company, valued at $4,670,420.72. This represents a 55.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 1.30% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on HCA. Baird R W downgraded shares of HCA Healthcare from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of HCA Healthcare from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, July 5th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of HCA Healthcare from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $320.00 to $385.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of HCA Healthcare from $416.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded shares of HCA Healthcare from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $396.46.

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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