HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) Rating Lowered to Buy at StockNews.com

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA – Get Rating) was downgraded by StockNews.com from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on HCA. Cowen dropped their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $265.00 to $241.00 in a research note on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $291.00 to $267.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $267.00 to $227.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of HCA Healthcare from $310.00 to $275.00 in a research report on Monday. Finally, Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of HCA Healthcare from $310.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $266.82.

Shares of HCA Healthcare stock traded down $0.14 during trading on Monday, reaching $210.50. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,733,621 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,678,917. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $255.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $248.71. The firm has a market cap of $63.57 billion, a PE ratio of 9.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.60. HCA Healthcare has a fifty-two week low of $196.22 and a fifty-two week high of $279.02. The company has a current ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 23.06.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Friday, April 22nd. The company reported $4.12 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.25 by ($0.13). The business had revenue of $14.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.72 billion. HCA Healthcare had a net margin of 11.84% and a return on equity of 303.35%. The business’s revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $4.14 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that HCA Healthcare will post 18.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, January 27th that permits the company to repurchase $8.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to purchase up to 10.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

In other news, insider A Bruce Moore, Jr. sold 20,633 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $244.01, for a total transaction of $5,034,658.33. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Joseph A. Sowell III sold 11,522 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.00, for a total transaction of $3,099,418.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in HCA Healthcare by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 16,377,032 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,207,588,000 after purchasing an additional 313,091 shares in the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 16.9% during the fourth quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 9,448,037 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,650,774,000 after purchasing an additional 1,365,582 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,793,750 shares of the company’s stock valued at $971,719,000 after purchasing an additional 10,724 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of HCA Healthcare during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $596,396,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 1.8% during the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 2,292,237 shares of the company’s stock valued at $556,372,000 after purchasing an additional 39,947 shares during the period. 66.36% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

HCA Healthcare Company Profile (Get Rating)

HCA Healthcare, Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides health care services company in the United States. The company 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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