Great Lakes Advisors LLC Takes Position in HCA Healthcare, Inc. $HCA

Great Lakes Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 5,476 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,135,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of HCA Healthcare during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $5,069,974,000. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of HCA Healthcare by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,566,643 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,532,563,000 after purchasing an additional 76,039 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its position in HCA Healthcare by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 4,999,422 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,334,040,000 after buying an additional 40,086 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in HCA Healthcare by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,663,705 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,702,738,000 after acquiring an additional 13,565 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of HCA Healthcare in the 4th quarter worth $1,262,513,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on HCA. Leerink Partners reduced their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $573.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 27th. Weiss Ratings cut HCA Healthcare from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 9th. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $500.00 to $431.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Argus lowered their target price on shares of HCA Healthcare from $560.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $450.00 price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, HCA Healthcare has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $462.64.

HCA Healthcare Trading Up 5.6%

Shares of NYSE HCA opened at $429.08 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $92.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.10. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a 1-year low of $353.99 and a 1-year high of $556.52. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $397.16 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $444.14.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 24th. The company reported $7.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $7.56 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $20.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $19.76 billion. HCA Healthcare had a net margin of 8.77% and a negative return on equity of 244.79%. The company’s revenue was up 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $6.84 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 29.47 EPS for the current year.

HCA Healthcare Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.78 per share. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 16th. HCA Healthcare’s payout ratio is presently 10.45%.

About HCA Healthcare

HCA Healthcare is a for?profit operator of healthcare facilities headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1968, the company owns and operates a network of hospitals and related healthcare facilities and has grown through organic expansion and acquisitions to become a large provider of inpatient and outpatient services.

The company’s core activities include the operation of acute care hospitals, freestanding surgical and emergency centers, and outpatient clinics. HCA’s services encompass inpatient care, surgical services, emergency medicine, diagnostic imaging and laboratory testing, and various outpatient and ambulatory care offerings.