E Fund Management Co. Ltd. Purchases New Holdings in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

E Fund Management Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 844 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $228,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in HCA. Stone House Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of HCA Healthcare during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Centerpoint Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of HCA Healthcare in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC acquired a new stake in HCA Healthcare during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of HCA Healthcare during the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Finally, EdgeRock Capital LLC acquired a new position in HCA Healthcare during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Institutional investors own 62.73% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Michael S. Cuffe sold 1,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.00, for a total value of $494,400.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 34,124 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,544,316. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Michael S. Cuffe sold 1,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.00, for a total value of $494,400.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 34,124 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,544,316. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 876 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $330.25, for a total transaction of $289,299.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,576 shares in the company, valued at $520,474. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 3,793 shares of company stock worth $1,198,033 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 1.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on HCA shares. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of HCA Healthcare from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $322.00 to $329.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. StockNews.com downgraded HCA Healthcare from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of HCA Healthcare from $371.00 to $360.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $335.00 target price on shares of HCA Healthcare in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $316.59.

HCA Healthcare Stock Up 4.0 %

HCA Healthcare stock opened at $321.90 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 29.26, a current ratio of 1.16 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $321.17 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $299.35. The firm has a market cap of $84.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.66. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $215.96 and a fifty-two week high of $335.83.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last posted 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. HCA Healthcare had a return on equity of 674.49% and a net margin of 8.20%. The company had revenue of $17.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.81 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $4.93 earnings per share. HCA Healthcare’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 20.74 earnings per share for the current year.

HCA Healthcare declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, January 30th that allows the company to buyback $6.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 7.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

HCA Healthcare Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be given a $0.66 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.82%. HCA Healthcare’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.16%.

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.