Rathbones Group PLC Acquires 879 Shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

Rathbones Group PLC boosted its holdings in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 48,255 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 879 shares during the quarter. Rathbones Group PLC’s holdings in HCA Healthcare were worth $15,503,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in HCA Healthcare during the 4th quarter valued at $694,985,000. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 35.7% during the fourth quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 4,503,918 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,219,121,000 after purchasing an additional 1,183,890 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of HCA Healthcare by 57.5% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 2,792,377 shares of the company’s stock worth $931,342,000 after buying an additional 1,019,750 shares in the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 11,404,003 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,086,836,000 after acquiring an additional 456,738 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lee Danner & Bass Inc. purchased a new position in HCA Healthcare in the second quarter worth $131,527,000. 62.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

HCA Healthcare Trading Up 0.8 %

HCA Healthcare stock opened at $394.68 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $101.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.67, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.67. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $215.96 and a fifty-two week high of $403.05. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $362.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $338.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 27.11, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.06.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The company reported $5.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.97 by $0.53. The firm had revenue of $17.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.05 billion. HCA Healthcare had a net margin of 8.40% and a return on equity of 553.13%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $4.29 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 22.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th will be given a $0.66 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 16th. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. HCA Healthcare’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.16%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Kathryn A. Torres sold 1,857 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $355.05, for a total value of $659,327.85. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 17,755 shares in the company, valued at $6,303,912.75. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Kathryn A. Torres sold 1,857 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $355.05, for a total value of $659,327.85. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 17,755 shares in the company, valued at $6,303,912.75. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Christopher F. Wyatt sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $360.20, for a total transaction of $1,440,800.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 40,449 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,569,729.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 17,202 shares of company stock worth $6,407,273. Corporate insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on HCA. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of HCA Healthcare from $327.00 to $332.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $315.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Leerink Partners boosted their target price on HCA Healthcare from $367.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. StockNews.com upgraded HCA Healthcare from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 1st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $392.00 target price on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research note on Monday, August 19th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $359.89.

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.