Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Grows Holdings in HCA Healthcare, Inc. $HCA

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) by 6.5% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 20,843 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,274 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in HCA Healthcare were worth $7,985,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in HCA. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 11.9% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 25,454 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,796,000 after acquiring an additional 2,698 shares during the last quarter. Park Place Capital Corp grew its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 2,336.0% during the 2nd quarter. Park Place Capital Corp now owns 1,218 shares of the company’s stock worth $474,000 after acquiring an additional 1,168 shares during the period. Harrell Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 176.3% during the 2nd quarter. Harrell Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,815 shares of the company’s stock valued at $695,000 after buying an additional 1,158 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its stake in HCA Healthcare by 53.9% during the first quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 4,630 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,600,000 after buying an additional 1,622 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its stake in HCA Healthcare by 26.9% in the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,141 shares of the company’s stock worth $395,000 after purchasing an additional 242 shares in the last quarter. 62.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other HCA Healthcare news, EVP Michael S. Cuffe sold 3,836 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $418.84, for a total transaction of $1,606,670.24. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 31,503 shares in the company, valued at $13,194,716.52. This trade represents a 10.85% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 1.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on HCA. Bank of America increased their target price on HCA Healthcare from $375.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Barclays raised their target price on HCA Healthcare from $390.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on HCA Healthcare from $380.00 to $423.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. Truist Financial raised their price target on HCA Healthcare from $390.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of HCA Healthcare from $360.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $422.31.

HCA Healthcare Stock Down 1.0%

Shares of HCA opened at $414.73 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $405.12 and a 200 day moving average of $376.08. The company has a market cap of $97.04 billion, a PE ratio of 17.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.40. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a 52-week low of $289.98 and a 52-week high of $439.01.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 25th. The company reported $6.84 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.20 by $0.64. The company had revenue of $18.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.49 billion. HCA Healthcare had a net margin of 8.21% and a negative return on equity of 7,363.11%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.50 EPS. HCA Healthcare has set its FY 2025 guidance at 25.500-27.000 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 24.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 16th were paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 16th. HCA Healthcare’s payout ratio is currently 12.11%.

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.