HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) Announces Earnings Results

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) issued its earnings results on Friday. The company reported $5.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.01 by $0.35, Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $17.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.81 billion. HCA Healthcare had a return on equity of 674.49% and a net margin of 8.20%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $4.93 EPS. HCA Healthcare updated its FY 2024 guidance to 19.700-21.200 EPS and its FY24 guidance to $19.70-21.20 EPS.

HCA Healthcare Stock Down 2.4 %

Shares of HCA opened at $306.69 on Monday. HCA Healthcare has a 52 week low of $215.96 and a 52 week high of $335.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 29.26, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $81.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $323.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $295.45.

HCA Healthcare Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a $0.66 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.86%. HCA Healthcare’s payout ratio is 13.16%.

Insider Buying and Selling at HCA Healthcare

In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 876 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $330.25, for a total value of $289,299.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 1,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $520,474. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Kathleen M. Whalen sold 4,262 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $306.21, for a total value of $1,305,067.02. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 10,250 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,138,652.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 876 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $330.25, for a total value of $289,299.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 1,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $520,474. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 14,840 shares of company stock valued at $4,588,869 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.70% of the company’s stock.

HCA Healthcare announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, January 30th that authorizes the company to repurchase $6.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 7.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on HCA. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on HCA Healthcare from $330.00 to $359.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on HCA Healthcare from $308.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Truist Financial increased their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $335.00 price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $303.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, HCA Healthcare presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $310.88.

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.