SVB Wealth LLC Trims Stock Position in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

SVB Wealth LLC reduced its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) by 27.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,825 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,092 shares during the quarter. SVB Wealth LLC’s holdings in HCA Healthcare were worth $765,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. RB Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of HCA Healthcare by 25.9% in the 1st quarter. RB Capital Management LLC now owns 2,432 shares of the company’s stock worth $610,000 after buying an additional 501 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of HCA Healthcare by 18.6% in the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 11,035 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,766,000 after buying an additional 1,730 shares during the period. Prudential PLC purchased a new stake in shares of HCA Healthcare in the 1st quarter worth about $1,083,000. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in shares of HCA Healthcare by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 4,499 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,128,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the period. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in HCA Healthcare in the 1st quarter worth about $248,000. 62.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on HCA shares. StockNews.com cut shares of HCA Healthcare from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of HCA Healthcare from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $277.00 to $301.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of HCA Healthcare from $308.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $315.00 target price on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of HCA Healthcare from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, HCA Healthcare presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $314.05.

Insider Buying and Selling at HCA Healthcare

In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 344 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $321.97, for a total transaction of $110,757.68. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 2,452 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $789,470.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 344 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $321.97, for a total transaction of $110,757.68. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 2,452 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $789,470.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 876 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $330.25, for a total value of $289,299.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 1,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $520,474. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 14,840 shares of company stock valued at $4,588,869 in the last three months. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

HCA Healthcare Price Performance

NYSE HCA opened at $305.11 on Friday. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a 52 week low of $215.96 and a 52 week high of $335.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $80.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.08, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 35.07. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $324.88 and a 200-day moving average price of $291.93.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The company reported $5.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.05 by $0.85. The company had revenue of $17.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.51 billion. HCA Healthcare had a net margin of 8.07% and a return on equity of 996.30%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $4.64 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 20.58 earnings per share for the current year.

HCA Healthcare Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.66 dividend. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.87%. This is a positive change from HCA Healthcare’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. HCA Healthcare’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.91%.

HCA Healthcare declared that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, January 30th that permits the company to buyback $6.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase up to 7.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.