HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) Price Target Increased to $329.00 by Analysts at Royal Bank of Canada

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) had its target price lifted by Royal Bank of Canada from $322.00 to $329.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

HCA has been the subject of a number of other reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $330.00 to $359.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Barclays began coverage on HCA Healthcare in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. They issued an overweight rating and a $356.00 target price for the company. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $330.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Monday. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an overweight rating and set a $335.00 price target on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $313.88.

HCA Healthcare Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of HCA Healthcare stock opened at $311.42 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.16, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 29.26. HCA Healthcare has a 1 year low of $215.96 and a 1 year high of $335.83. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $323.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $295.56. The company has a market cap of $82.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.52, a PEG ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.65.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $5.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.01 by $0.35. The business had revenue of $17.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.81 billion. HCA Healthcare had a return on equity of 674.49% and a net margin of 8.20%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $4.93 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that HCA Healthcare will post 20.58 EPS for the current year.

HCA Healthcare announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, January 30th that authorizes the company to repurchase $6.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 7.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

HCA Healthcare Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.66 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.85%. HCA Healthcare’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.16%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Kathryn A. Torres sold 3,861 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.00, for a total value of $1,185,327.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 15,899 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,880,993. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other HCA Healthcare news, EVP Michael S. Cuffe sold 3,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $306.79, for a total transaction of $981,728.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 24,929 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,647,967.91. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Kathryn A. Torres sold 3,861 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.00, for a total transaction of $1,185,327.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 15,899 shares in the company, valued at $4,880,993. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 14,840 shares of company stock valued at $4,588,869 in the last 90 days. 1.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of HCA. Caprock Group LLC raised its position in shares of HCA Healthcare by 8.4% in the first quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 4,261 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,421,000 after buying an additional 329 shares in the last quarter. Argent Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Argent Capital Management LLC now owns 12,183 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,063,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. OFI Invest Asset Management grew its stake in HCA Healthcare by 2.5% during the first quarter. OFI Invest Asset Management now owns 58,159 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,961,000 after buying an additional 1,425 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of HCA Healthcare by 7.5% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 422,407 shares of the company’s stock worth $140,885,000 after acquiring an additional 29,326 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Seascape Capital Management lifted its stake in HCA Healthcare by 2.2% during the first quarter. Seascape Capital Management now owns 14,235 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,748,000 after purchasing an additional 313 shares during the last quarter. 62.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.