HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) Lifted to “Strong-Buy” at StockNews.com

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) was upgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report released on Monday.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on HCA Healthcare from $359.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Barclays raised their target price on HCA Healthcare from $356.00 to $367.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $303.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Baird R W upgraded shares of HCA Healthcare to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted 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, April 29th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $326.53.

HCA Healthcare Stock Performance

HCA Healthcare stock traded down $6.16 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $315.12. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,378,014 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,099,817. The firm has a market cap of $82.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.71, a PEG ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.68. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $325.96 and a 200-day moving average price of $317.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.16, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 29.26. HCA Healthcare has a twelve month low of $215.96 and a twelve month high of $344.20.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $5.36 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 8.20% and a return on equity of 674.49%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $4.93 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that HCA Healthcare will post 20.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Kathryn A. Torres sold 973 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.00, for a total transaction of $303,576.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 22,365 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,977,880. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Kathryn A. Torres sold 973 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $312.00, for a total transaction of $303,576.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 22,365 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,977,880. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jeffrey E. Cohen sold 1,650 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $313.00, for a total value of $516,450.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 5,185 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,622,905. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 12,397 shares of company stock valued at $3,921,929. 1.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HCA Healthcare

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in HCA. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 461 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 26.7% during the fourth quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC now owns 166 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 1.4% during the first quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. now owns 2,642 shares of the company’s stock worth $881,000 after buying an additional 36 shares during the last quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 1.0% during the first quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 3,879 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,294,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wedmont Private Capital lifted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.