HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) Shares Sold by GHP Investment Advisors Inc.

GHP Investment Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) by 12.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 500 shares of the company’s stock after selling 72 shares during the period. GHP Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in HCA Healthcare were worth $135,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of HCA Healthcare in the 4th quarter valued at about $547,104,000. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 51.5% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,229,190 shares of the company’s stock valued at $534,917,000 after acquiring an additional 758,127 shares during the last quarter. MFN Partners Management LP increased its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 102.9% in the 1st quarter. MFN Partners Management LP now owns 1,261,201 shares of the company’s stock valued at $316,081,000 after acquiring an additional 639,701 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 14.1% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 2,800,847 shares of the company’s stock valued at $701,948,000 after acquiring an additional 347,177 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kinetic Partners Management LP purchased a new position in HCA Healthcare during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $50,524,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on HCA shares. StockNews.com downgraded HCA Healthcare from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded HCA Healthcare from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $277.00 to $301.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on HCA Healthcare from $330.00 to $359.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on HCA Healthcare from $308.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $335.00 target price on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research note on Wednesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $314.05.

Insider Transactions at HCA Healthcare

In other news, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 876 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $520,474. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 876 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $520,474. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Kathleen M. Whalen sold 4,262 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The shares were 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 directly owns 10,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,138,652.50. 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 over the last three months. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

HCA Healthcare Stock Performance

Shares of HCA stock opened at $322.82 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $319.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $279.40. The stock has a market cap of $85.38 billion, a PE ratio of 17.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.65. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a 1 year low of $215.96 and a 1 year high of $335.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 35.07, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.18.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The company reported $5.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.05 by $0.85. The firm had revenue of $17.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.51 billion. HCA Healthcare had a return on equity of 996.30% and a net margin of 8.07%. HCA Healthcare’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $4.64 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 20.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.66 dividend. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.82%. This is a boost from HCA Healthcare’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. HCA Healthcare’s payout ratio is 13.91%.

HCA Healthcare declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Tuesday, January 30th that authorizes the company to buyback $6.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 7.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.