Plato Investment Management Ltd Raises Position in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

Plato Investment Management Ltd increased its holdings in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) by 5.4% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 5,028 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 258 shares during the quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in HCA Healthcare were worth $1,515,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of HCA. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 4.0% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 17,249 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,011,000 after acquiring an additional 658 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 28.3% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,157 shares of the company’s stock worth $470,000 after acquiring an additional 255 shares in the last quarter. Optas LLC lifted its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 23.0% in the third quarter. Optas LLC now owns 785 shares of the company’s stock worth $319,000 after acquiring an additional 147 shares in the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its stake in HCA Healthcare by 18.1% during the third quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 18,087 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,351,000 after buying an additional 2,766 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp acquired a new stake in HCA Healthcare during the third quarter valued at approximately $752,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on HCA. Bank of America cut their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $380.00 to $370.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Barclays cut their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $392.00 to $366.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Truist Financial dropped their price target on HCA Healthcare from $430.00 to $390.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on HCA Healthcare from $405.00 to $384.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut HCA Healthcare from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $400.00 to $320.00 in a research report on Monday, November 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $385.67.

Insider Transactions at HCA Healthcare

In other news, SVP Jennifer Berres sold 9,533 shares of the firm’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 directly owns 15,412 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,971,757.08. This trade represents a 38.22 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

HCA Healthcare Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE HCA opened at $311.11 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $315.30 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $348.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 69.07, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.08. The firm has a market cap of $77.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.16, a PEG ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.64. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a 1 year low of $289.98 and a 1 year high of $417.14.

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, beating 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. Research analysts forecast that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 24.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 17th. This is a positive change from HCA Healthcare’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.93%. HCA Healthcare’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 13.11%.

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.