HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.35 EPS

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday. The company reported $5.36 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.01 by $0.35, Briefing.com reports. HCA Healthcare had a net margin of 8.07% and a return on equity of 996.30%. The business had revenue of $17.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.81 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $4.93 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. HCA Healthcare updated its FY 2024 guidance to 19.700-21.200 EPS and its FY24 guidance to $19.70-21.20 EPS.

HCA Healthcare Trading Down 2.4 %

HCA opened at $306.60 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $81.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.15, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 35.07. HCA Healthcare has a 12 month low of $215.96 and a 12 month high of $335.83. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $323.94 and a 200-day moving average price of $295.00.

HCA Healthcare Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.86%. HCA Healthcare’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.91%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on HCA. Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of HCA Healthcare from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $277.00 to $301.00 in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on HCA Healthcare from $303.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Barclays began coverage on HCA Healthcare in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $356.00 price target for the company. Raymond James raised their price target on HCA Healthcare from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on HCA Healthcare from $308.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $310.88.

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 approximately $520,474. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Kathryn A. Torres sold 3,861 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.00, for a total transaction of $1,185,327.00. Following 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 document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 876 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at approximately $520,474. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 14,840 shares of company stock valued at $4,588,869. Corporate insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

HCA Healthcare declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, January 30th that authorizes the company to repurchase $6.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 7.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

HCA Healthcare Company 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.