Royal Bank of Canada Has Lowered Expectations for HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) Stock Price

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA - Free Report) had its target price reduced by Royal Bank of Canada from $384.00 to $376.00 in a report issued on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on the stock. KeyCorp dropped their target price on shares of HCA Healthcare from $420.00 to $370.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $405.00 target price on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $430.00 to $390.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Barclays cut their target price on HCA Healthcare from $392.00 to $366.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Baird R W cut shares of HCA Healthcare from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $381.13.

HCA Healthcare Trading Down 0.6 %

HCA Healthcare stock traded down $2.15 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $342.93. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,148,001 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,398,969. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $331.50 and a 200-day moving average price of $331.12. HCA Healthcare has a 12 month low of $289.98 and a 12 month high of $417.14. The stock has a market cap of $84.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 69.07, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.97.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $6.45 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $5.75 by $0.70. The business had revenue of $18.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $18.26 billion. HCA Healthcare had a return on equity of 586.47% and a net margin of 8.16%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $5.36 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that HCA Healthcare will post 24.98 EPS for the current year.

HCA Healthcare Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.84%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 16th. HCA Healthcare's payout ratio is currently 12.81%.

Insider Activity at HCA Healthcare

In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Jennifer Berres sold 9,533 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.59, for a total value of $3,075,250.47. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 15,412 shares in the company, valued at $4,971,757.08. This trade represents a 38.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HCA Healthcare

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Galvin Gaustad & Stein LLC purchased a new position in HCA Healthcare during the 4th quarter worth $18,044,000. NRI Wealth Management LC acquired a new position in HCA Healthcare in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,896,000. Czech National Bank lifted its position in HCA Healthcare by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 39,543 shares of the company's stock worth $11,869,000 after acquiring an additional 1,691 shares during the period. Peak Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of HCA Healthcare in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,122,000. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC grew its position in HCA Healthcare by 7.7% in the 4th quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 116,075 shares of the company's stock valued at $34,840,000 after buying an additional 8,329 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.73% of the company's stock.

HCA Healthcare Company 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.