Royal Bank of Canada Lowers HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) Price Target to $376.00

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) had its price objective decreased by Royal Bank of Canada from $384.00 to $376.00 in a report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $380.00 to $370.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th. KeyCorp dropped their target price on shares of HCA Healthcare from $420.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Baird R W cut shares of HCA Healthcare from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $336.00 price target (down previously from $396.00) on shares of HCA Healthcare in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 price target on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research report on Monday, January 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, HCA Healthcare presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $381.13.

HCA Healthcare Price Performance

HCA stock opened at $345.38 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 69.07. HCA Healthcare has a 12 month low of $289.98 and a 12 month high of $417.14. The firm has a market cap of $85.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.72, a P/E/G ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.48. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $331.02 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $331.49.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $6.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.75 by $0.70. HCA Healthcare had a net margin of 8.16% and a return on equity of 586.47%. The company had revenue of $18.32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.26 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $5.36 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that HCA Healthcare will post 24.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be given a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. HCA Healthcare’s dividend payout ratio is presently 12.81%.

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 value of $3,075,250.47. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 15,412 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,971,757.08. The trade was a 38.22 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 1.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of HCA Healthcare

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE boosted its position in shares of HCA Healthcare by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 1,039 shares of the company’s stock worth $312,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 12,787 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,838,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd raised its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd now owns 10,592 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,153,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares during the last quarter. Prairie Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Prairie Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 700 shares of the company’s stock worth $210,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Perigon Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,797 shares of the company’s stock worth $621,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. 62.73% of the stock is 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.