Barclays Boosts HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) Price Target to $367.00

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA - Free Report) had its target price boosted by Barclays from $356.00 to $367.00 in a report released on Monday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the stock.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on HCA. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of HCA Healthcare from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. StockNews.com raised HCA Healthcare from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered HCA Healthcare from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and increased their price objective for the company from $277.00 to $301.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of HCA Healthcare from $330.00 to $359.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $330.00 to $345.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Monday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, HCA Healthcare has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $313.88.

HCA Healthcare Price Performance

HCA stock traded up $4.73 during trading on Monday, reaching $311.42. 1,141,109 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,108,368. HCA Healthcare has a 52-week low of $215.96 and a 52-week high of $335.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 29.26, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.16. The company has a market cap of $82.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.52, a PEG ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.65. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $323.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $295.56.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $5.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.01 by $0.35. The firm had revenue of $17.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.81 billion. HCA Healthcare had a return on equity of 674.49% and a net margin of 8.20%. HCA Healthcare's quarterly revenue was up 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $4.93 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that HCA Healthcare will post 20.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Tuesday, January 30th that authorizes the company to buyback $6.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 7.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

HCA Healthcare Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.66 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.85%. HCA Healthcare's payout ratio is 13.16%.

Insider Activity

In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 876 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $330.25, for a total value of $289,299.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 1,576 shares of the company's stock, valued at $520,474. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 876 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $330.25, for a total value of $289,299.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,576 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $520,474. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Sammie S. Mosier sold 1,645 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.00, for a total value of $513,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 7,646 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,385,552. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 14,840 shares of company stock worth $4,588,869. 1.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HCA Healthcare

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in HCA Healthcare during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $694,985,000. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its stake in HCA Healthcare by 35.7% during the fourth quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 4,503,918 shares of the company's stock worth $1,219,121,000 after purchasing an additional 1,183,890 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its stake in HCA Healthcare by 112.1% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 1,772,627 shares of the company's stock valued at $479,815,000 after purchasing an additional 936,823 shares during the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of HCA Healthcare by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 11,404,003 shares of the company's stock worth $3,086,836,000 after buying an additional 456,738 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc raised its stake in HCA Healthcare by 230.5% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 553,225 shares of the company's stock worth $149,747,000 after acquiring an additional 385,854 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 62.73% 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.