Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Decreases Stake in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lessened its position in shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) by 0.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 29,898 shares of the company’s stock after selling 207 shares during the quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in HCA Healthcare were worth $8,974,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in HCA Healthcare during the third quarter valued at $39,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in HCA Healthcare during the third quarter valued at $41,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of HCA Healthcare in the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Activest Wealth Management raised its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 1,250.0% in the fourth quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 135 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 125 shares during the period. Finally, Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. raised its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 50.0% in the fourth quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. now owns 150 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.73% of the company’s stock.

HCA Healthcare Price Performance

NYSE:HCA opened at $336.60 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $82.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.32, a PEG ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.68. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a 1 year low of $289.98 and a 1 year high of $417.14. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $317.46 and a 200-day simple moving average of $346.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 69.07, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.97.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The company reported $6.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.03 by $0.19. HCA Healthcare had a return on equity of 586.47% and a net margin of 8.16%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $5.90 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 24.98 EPS for the current year.

HCA Healthcare Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, March 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. This is a positive change from HCA Healthcare’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 17th. HCA Healthcare’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 13.11%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on HCA. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $405.00 to $384.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Wells Fargo & Company cut HCA Healthcare from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $400.00 to $320.00 in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Bank of America cut their target price on HCA Healthcare from $380.00 to $370.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Raymond James cut HCA Healthcare from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on HCA Healthcare from $406.00 to $355.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, HCA Healthcare has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $385.67.

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 on Friday, February 14th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $4,971,757.08. The trade was a 38.22 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.