Schechter Investment Advisors LLC Sells 90 Shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

Schechter Investment Advisors LLC lowered its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) by 6.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,406 shares of the company’s stock after selling 90 shares during the quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in HCA Healthcare were worth $422,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of HCA. Whipplewood Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in HCA Healthcare during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of HCA Healthcare during the third quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Activest Wealth Management boosted its stake in HCA Healthcare by 1,250.0% during the fourth quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 135 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in shares of HCA Healthcare in the 3rd quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. increased its stake in HCA Healthcare by 50.0% in the fourth quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. now owns 150 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. 62.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on HCA. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $430.00 to $390.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $380.00 to $370.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Raymond James lowered shares of HCA Healthcare from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of HCA Healthcare from $406.00 to $355.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of HCA Healthcare from $405.00 to $384.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, HCA Healthcare currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $385.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Jennifer Berres sold 9,533 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 approximately $4,971,757.08. This represents a 38.22 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

HCA Healthcare Price Performance

HCA opened at $320.03 on Thursday. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a 52 week low of $289.98 and a 52 week high of $417.14. 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 capitalization of $79.48 billion, a PE ratio of 14.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $315.76 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $348.17.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last posted its earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The company reported $6.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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. As a group, analysts anticipate that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 24.98 earnings per share for the current year.

HCA Healthcare Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, March 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 17th. This is an increase from HCA Healthcare’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. HCA Healthcare’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.11%.

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.