New York State Common Retirement Fund Raises Position in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its stake in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA - Free Report) by 1.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 483,610 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 5,167 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned approximately 0.18% of HCA Healthcare worth $130,904,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wedmont Private Capital raised its stake in HCA Healthcare by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 2,527 shares of the company's stock worth $711,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the period. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV raised its stake in HCA Healthcare by 19.9% during the fourth quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 253 shares of the company's stock worth $68,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank raised its stake in HCA Healthcare by 0.4% during the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 11,206 shares of the company's stock worth $2,756,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Perigon Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in HCA Healthcare by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,759 shares of the company's stock worth $476,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Finally, Brookstone Capital Management raised its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 4,569 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,237,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares during the period. 62.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on HCA shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of HCA Healthcare from $330.00 to $359.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Barclays assumed coverage on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. They issued an "overweight" rating and a $356.00 target price on the stock. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of HCA Healthcare from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of HCA Healthcare from $303.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of HCA Healthcare from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $277.00 to $301.00 in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Four investment 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's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, HCA Healthcare presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $314.05.

HCA Healthcare Stock Performance

NYSE HCA traded up $9.12 on Tuesday, hitting $319.43. The stock had a trading volume of 1,165,445 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,090,380. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a one year low of $215.96 and a one year high of $335.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 35.07. The stock has a market cap of $84.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.65. The company's 50-day moving average is $324.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $292.52.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The company reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $5.05 by $0.85. The company had revenue of $17.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.51 billion. HCA Healthcare had a net margin of 8.07% and a return on equity of 996.30%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $4.64 EPS. On average, analysts expect that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 20.58 earnings per share for the current year.

HCA Healthcare Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.66 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This is a positive change from HCA Healthcare's previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.83%. HCA Healthcare's dividend payout ratio is currently 13.91%.

HCA Healthcare declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, January 30th that allows the company to buyback $6.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 7.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at HCA Healthcare

In related 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 transaction of $289,299.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,576 shares of the company's stock, valued at $520,474. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Kathleen M. Whalen sold 4,262 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.21, for a total value of $1,305,067.02. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 10,250 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,138,652.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 876 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $330.25, for a total transaction of $289,299.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 1,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $520,474. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 14,840 shares of company stock valued at $4,588,869 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 1.70% of the company's stock.

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.