Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado Trims Stake in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado cut its stake in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) by 6.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 25,650 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,680 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado’s holdings in HCA Healthcare were worth $7,699,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HCA. Norges Bank purchased a new position in HCA Healthcare in the fourth quarter worth $840,286,000. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lifted its stake in HCA Healthcare by 62.0% in the fourth quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 1,500,786 shares of the company’s stock worth $450,461,000 after purchasing an additional 574,239 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in HCA Healthcare by 85.7% in the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,061,891 shares of the company’s stock worth $318,727,000 after purchasing an additional 489,916 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in HCA Healthcare by 120.1% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 873,775 shares of the company’s stock worth $262,264,000 after purchasing an additional 476,756 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in HCA Healthcare in the fourth quarter worth $74,121,000. 62.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $336.00 price target (down from $396.00) on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $430.00 to $390.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com raised shares of HCA Healthcare from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $420.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research note on Monday, January 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $381.13.

HCA Healthcare Trading Up 1.3 %

HCA Healthcare stock opened at $332.19 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 69.07. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $330.05 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $331.32. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a 12 month low of $289.98 and a 12 month high of $417.14. The company has a market capitalization of $81.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.48.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $6.45 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.75 by $0.70. HCA Healthcare had a return on equity of 586.47% and a net margin of 8.16%. The business had revenue of $18.32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $5.36 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 24.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be paid a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.87%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 16th. HCA Healthcare’s dividend payout ratio is currently 12.81%.

Insider Transactions at HCA Healthcare

In related news, SVP Jennifer Berres sold 9,533 shares of the company’s 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 owns 15,412 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,971,757.08. This represents a 38.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

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.