HCA Healthcare, Inc. (HCA) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.72 on June 30th

HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, April 25th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be given a dividend of 0.72 per share on Monday, June 30th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.88%.

HCA Healthcare has increased its dividend by an average of 11.2% annually over the last three years. HCA Healthcare has a payout ratio of 10.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect HCA Healthcare to earn $28.03 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 10.3%.

HCA Healthcare Stock Performance

Shares of HCA Healthcare stock opened at $327.69 on Friday. HCA Healthcare has a 1-year low of $289.98 and a 1-year high of $417.14. The company has a market cap of $80.68 billion, a PE ratio of 14.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 69.07. The company has a 50 day moving average of $329.82 and a 200-day moving average of $332.15.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $6.45 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.77 by $0.68. The company had revenue of $18.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $18.26 billion. HCA Healthcare had a return on equity of 586.47% and a net margin of 8.16%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $5.36 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that HCA Healthcare will post 24.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on HCA. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $405.00 to $384.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $405.00 price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare in a report on Monday, January 27th. KeyCorp decreased their price target on shares of HCA Healthcare from $420.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $336.00 target price (down from $396.00) on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price target on HCA Healthcare from $380.00 to $370.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $381.67.

Insider Activity at HCA Healthcare

In other news, SVP Jennifer Berres sold 9,533 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.59, for a total transaction of $3,075,250.47. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 15,412 shares in the company, valued at $4,971,757.08. The trade was a 38.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A hedge fund recently bought a new stake in HCA Healthcare stock. Brighton Jones LLC acquired a new position in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 3,402 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,021,000. 62.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About HCA Healthcare

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.