Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. Sells 6,905 Shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. lowered its position in shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) by 6.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 95,898 shares of the company’s stock after selling 6,905 shares during the quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc.’s holdings in HCA Healthcare were worth $25,958,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in HCA Healthcare during the 4th quarter valued at $547,104,000. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 102.0% during the 2nd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 3,650,988 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,108,001,000 after purchasing an additional 1,843,887 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its position in HCA Healthcare by 51.5% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,229,190 shares of the company’s stock worth $534,917,000 after buying an additional 758,127 shares during the period. MFN Partners Management LP increased its position in HCA Healthcare by 102.9% during the 1st quarter. MFN Partners Management LP now owns 1,261,201 shares of the company’s stock worth $316,081,000 after buying an additional 639,701 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in HCA Healthcare by 14.1% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 2,800,847 shares of the company’s stock worth $701,948,000 after buying an additional 347,177 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on HCA. The Goldman Sachs Group cut HCA Healthcare from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $271.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, December 11th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $315.00 price target on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Truist Financial raised their price target on HCA Healthcare from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. StockNews.com lowered HCA Healthcare from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $335.00 price target on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $308.26.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 876 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 1,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $520,474. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 876 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $330.25, for a total transaction of $289,299.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now 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 can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 344 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $321.97, for a total value of $110,757.68. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 2,452 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $789,470.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 14,840 shares of company stock worth $4,588,869 in the last quarter. 1.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

HCA Healthcare Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of HCA stock opened at $331.71 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $87.73 billion, a PE ratio of 17.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.64. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a 1-year low of $215.96 and a 1-year high of $334.02. The business has a 50-day moving average of $309.98 and a 200 day moving average of $272.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 35.07, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 1.02.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The company reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.05 by $0.85. HCA Healthcare had a return on equity of 996.30% and a net margin of 8.07%. The company had revenue of $17.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.51 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $4.64 EPS. HCA Healthcare’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 20.49 earnings per share for the current year.

HCA Healthcare Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th will be paid a $0.66 dividend. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 14th. This is a boost from HCA Healthcare’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. HCA Healthcare’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.91%.

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