Vinva Investment Management Ltd Boosts Stake in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

Vinva Investment Management Ltd grew its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) by 2.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 9,648 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 191 shares during the quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in HCA Healthcare were worth $2,879,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of HCA Healthcare during the 3rd quarter valued at $39,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of HCA Healthcare during the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Tidemark LLC bought a new position in shares of HCA Healthcare during the 4th quarter valued at $36,000. Activest Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 1,250.0% during the 4th quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 135 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. grew its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 50.0% during the 4th quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. now owns 150 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.73% of the company’s stock.

HCA Healthcare Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE HCA opened at $334.42 on Thursday. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a 1 year low of $289.98 and a 1 year high of $417.14. The stock has a market cap of $82.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.68. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $320.53 and a 200 day moving average of $343.97. 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 earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The company reported $6.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 firm earned $5.90 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 24.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare Increases Dividend

The company 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 17th. 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 0.86%. HCA Healthcare’s payout ratio is 13.11%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Jennifer Berres sold 9,533 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HCA has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on shares of HCA Healthcare from $405.00 to $384.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 27th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of HCA Healthcare from $406.00 to $355.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. KeyCorp cut their price target on shares of HCA Healthcare from $420.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Raymond James lowered shares of HCA Healthcare from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Barclays cut their target price 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $385.67.

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.