Nomura Holdings Inc. Makes New Investment in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

Nomura Holdings Inc. acquired a new position in shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 113,353 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,023,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. NorthRock Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 205.6% during the 4th quarter. NorthRock Partners LLC now owns 2,002 shares of the company’s stock valued at $601,000 after purchasing an additional 1,347 shares during the last quarter. Numerai GP LLC bought a new stake in shares of HCA Healthcare in the 4th quarter valued at $1,026,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 1,865,771 shares of the company’s stock valued at $560,011,000 after purchasing an additional 81,105 shares during the last quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp boosted its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 13,067 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,922,000 after purchasing an additional 421 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 20.2% in the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 161,715 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,538,000 after purchasing an additional 27,139 shares during the last quarter. 62.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on HCA. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $392.00 to $366.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of HCA Healthcare from $384.00 to $376.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of HCA Healthcare from $380.00 to $370.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Guggenheim assumed coverage on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. They set a “neutral” rating on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of HCA Healthcare from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $381.13.

HCA Healthcare Price Performance

HCA opened at $368.33 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $337.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $328.08. The company has a market capitalization of $88.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.77, a PEG ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.46. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a twelve month low of $289.98 and a twelve month high of $417.14. 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 (NYSE:HCA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $6.45 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.75 by $0.70. The company had revenue of $18.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $18.26 billion. HCA Healthcare had a net margin of 8.16% and a return on equity of 586.47%. HCA Healthcare’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $5.36 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 24.98 EPS for the current year.

HCA Healthcare Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be given a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 16th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.78%. HCA Healthcare’s payout ratio is presently 12.81%.

Insider Buying and Selling at HCA Healthcare

In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Jennifer Berres sold 9,533 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were 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 directly 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.