HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) Receives Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Key Points

• HCA Healthcare has garnered an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from 17 analysts, with 9 holding the stock, 7 giving a buy rating, and 1 issuing a strong buy.
• The company reported second-quarter earnings of $6.84 per share, surpassing analysts' expectations, with revenue totaling $18.61 billion, marking a 6.4% increase year-over-year.
• HCA Healthcare recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.72 per share, translating to an annual yield of 0.7%, with a payout ratio of 12.11%.

HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA - Get Free Report) has received an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the seventeen ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $398.5833.

Several research firms have recently commented on HCA. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on HCA Healthcare from $410.00 to $400.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on HCA Healthcare from $385.00 to $375.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Stephens raised HCA Healthcare to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on HCA Healthcare from $380.00 to $423.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target 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.

HCA Healthcare Trading Up 0.6%

HCA stock opened at $395.83 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $370.53 and a 200 day moving average price of $351.75. HCA Healthcare has a fifty-two week low of $289.98 and a fifty-two week high of $417.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $92.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 69.07, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.86.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $18.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $5.50 EPS. Analysts expect that HCA Healthcare will post 24.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 16th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. HCA Healthcare's payout ratio is currently 12.11%.

Institutional Trading of HCA Healthcare

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its holdings 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 valued at $1,600,000 after purchasing an additional 1,622 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its holdings 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 valued at $395,000 after purchasing an additional 242 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings 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 valued at $1,491,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of HCA Healthcare by 17.6% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,931 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,704,000 after acquiring an additional 737 shares during the last quarter. Finally, J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of HCA Healthcare by 145.3% in the first quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 3,550 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,227,000 after acquiring an additional 2,103 shares during the last quarter. 62.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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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