E Fund Management Co. Ltd. Grows Stake in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

E Fund Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) by 101.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,492 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 753 shares during the period. E Fund Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in HCA Healthcare were worth $448,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its stake in HCA Healthcare by 18.1% during the 3rd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 18,087 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,351,000 after purchasing an additional 2,766 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp purchased a new position in HCA Healthcare in the 3rd quarter worth $752,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in HCA Healthcare by 26.2% during the 3rd quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,703 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,099,000 after purchasing an additional 561 shares during the last quarter. Summit Global Investments lifted its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 2.8% during the third quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 3,287 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,336,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the period. Finally, AIA Group Ltd increased its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 2,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $813,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.73% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at HCA Healthcare

In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Jennifer Berres sold 9,533 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.59, for a total value of $3,075,250.47. Following the transaction, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HCA has been the topic of a number of research reports. KeyCorp cut their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $420.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Raymond James lowered HCA Healthcare from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on HCA Healthcare from $405.00 to $384.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 27th. Barclays dropped 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. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of HCA Healthcare from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $400.00 to $320.00 in a report on Monday, November 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $385.67.

HCA Healthcare Stock Performance

NYSE HCA opened at $330.11 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $316.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $347.49. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a 1-year low of $289.98 and a 1-year high of $417.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 69.07, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The company has a market cap of $81.27 billion, a PE ratio of 15.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.68.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last issued its earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The company reported $6.22 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.03 by $0.19. HCA Healthcare had a net margin of 8.16% and a return on equity of 586.47%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $5.90 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 24.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be issued a $0.72 dividend. This is a boost from HCA Healthcare’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 17th. HCA Healthcare’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.11%.

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.