Pzena Investment Management LLC Buys Shares of 114,151 HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

Pzena Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 114,151 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $39,445,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE lifted its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 1,039 shares of the company's stock worth $312,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the period. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC raised its position in shares of HCA Healthcare by 4.3% in the 1st quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC now owns 872 shares of the company's stock worth $301,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of HCA Healthcare by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,797 shares of the company's stock worth $621,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. raised its position in shares of HCA Healthcare by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 1,195 shares of the company's stock worth $359,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barden Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of HCA Healthcare by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Barden Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,921 shares of the company's stock worth $1,009,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. 62.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at HCA Healthcare

In other HCA Healthcare news, COO Jon M. Foster sold 15,698 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were 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 filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on HCA shares. Baird R W lowered HCA Healthcare from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Barclays set a $416.00 target price on HCA Healthcare and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $336.00 target price (down from $396.00) on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Bank of America lowered HCA Healthcare from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $394.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised HCA Healthcare from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, July 5th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $399.21.

HCA Healthcare Stock Performance

HCA Healthcare stock traded down $1.69 during trading on Friday, hitting $360.91. The stock had a trading volume of 1,029,847 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,452,577. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a 1 year low of $289.98 and a 1 year high of $417.14. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 69.07. The stock's 50 day moving average is $376.24 and its two-hundred day moving average is $343.58. The stock has a market cap of $86.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.47.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $6.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $5.75 by $0.70. HCA Healthcare had a net margin of 8.07% and a return on equity of 1,063.91%. The business had revenue of $18.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $18.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $5.36 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 24.98 EPS for the current year.

HCA Healthcare Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th were given a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. HCA Healthcare's payout ratio is 12.81%.

HCA Healthcare Profile

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.