HCA Healthcare Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:HCA)

HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Monday. Investors acquired 2,228 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 45% compared to the typical volume of 1,541 put options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HCA has been the topic of a number of research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $359.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 28th. 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 report on Thursday, March 28th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on HCA Healthcare from $330.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of HCA Healthcare from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 1st. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $367.00 to $376.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, HCA Healthcare presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $327.06.

Insider Activity at HCA Healthcare

In other news, SVP Kathryn A. Torres sold 973 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $312.00, for a total value of $303,576.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other HCA Healthcare news, EVP Michael S. Cuffe sold 6,311 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.88, for a total transaction of $1,999,829.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 29,624 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,387,253.12. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Kathryn A. Torres sold 973 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $312.00, for a total transaction of $303,576.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 22,365 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,977,880. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 12,397 shares of company stock valued at $3,921,929 over the last three months. 1.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in HCA Healthcare by 0.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,989,683 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,666,569,000 after buying an additional 60,304 shares during the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 11,404,003 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,086,836,000 after purchasing an additional 456,738 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,186,129 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,757,181,000 after buying an additional 170,560 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 35.7% in the fourth quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 4,503,918 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,219,121,000 after acquiring an additional 1,183,890 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 57.5% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 2,792,377 shares of the company’s stock valued at $931,342,000 after purchasing an additional 1,019,750 shares during the last quarter. 62.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

HCA Healthcare Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE HCA opened at $339.77 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $328.54 and its two-hundred day moving average is $322.11. The company has a market cap of $88.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.94, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.68. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 29.26. HCA Healthcare has a 12 month low of $215.96 and a 12 month high of $348.00.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last issued its earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $5.36 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.01 by $0.35. The business had revenue of $17.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.81 billion. HCA Healthcare had a return on equity of 674.49% and a net margin of 8.20%. HCA Healthcare’s revenue was up 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $4.93 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that HCA Healthcare will post 20.97 EPS for the current year.

HCA Healthcare Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th were given a dividend of $0.66 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.78%. HCA Healthcare’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.16%.

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.