Hartford Funds Management Co LLC Buys 537 Shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

Hartford Funds Management Co LLC increased its position in shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) by 40.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,862 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 537 shares during the quarter. Hartford Funds Management Co LLC’s holdings in HCA Healthcare were worth $504,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of HCA. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 3.2% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,152,419 shares of the company’s stock worth $529,452,000 after acquiring an additional 67,332 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 1.4% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,150,009 shares of the company’s stock worth $528,860,000 after acquiring an additional 30,072 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in HCA Healthcare by 5.0% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,146,844 shares of the company’s stock worth $528,081,000 after buying an additional 102,025 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in HCA Healthcare by 3.7% during the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,594,344 shares of the company’s stock worth $392,177,000 after buying an additional 57,390 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in HCA Healthcare by 1.1% during the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 605,931 shares of the company’s stock worth $150,101,000 after buying an additional 6,368 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HCA has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. 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 note on Monday. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered HCA Healthcare from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $277.00 to $301.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on HCA Healthcare from $303.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. StockNews.com raised HCA Healthcare from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on HCA Healthcare from $356.00 to $367.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $316.59.

HCA Healthcare Stock Performance

HCA Healthcare stock traded down $1.62 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $309.80. 955,767 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,106,681. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a twelve month low of $215.96 and a twelve month high of $335.83. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $323.43 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $296.11. 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 cap of $81.94 billion, a PE ratio of 15.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.65.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last released 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 firm had revenue of $17.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.81 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $4.93 EPS. HCA Healthcare’s quarterly revenue was up 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 20.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be issued a $0.66 dividend. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. HCA Healthcare’s payout ratio is currently 13.16%.

HCA Healthcare declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, January 30th that allows the company to buyback $6.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase up to 7.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Michael S. Cuffe sold 3,200 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $306.79, for a total transaction of $981,728.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 24,929 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,647,967.91. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 876 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $520,474. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Michael S. Cuffe sold 3,200 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $306.79, for a total value of $981,728.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 24,929 shares in the company, valued at $7,647,967.91. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 14,840 shares of company stock worth $4,588,869 over the last quarter. 1.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.