Equitable Trust Co. Trims Holdings in HCA Healthcare, Inc. $HCA

Equitable Trust Co. cut its holdings in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 169,038 shares of the company’s stock after selling 8,054 shares during the quarter. HCA Healthcare accounts for 3.2% of Equitable Trust Co.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest holding. Equitable Trust Co. owned about 0.07% of HCA Healthcare worth $64,758,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of HCA. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 83.4% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,399,372 shares of the company’s stock worth $829,104,000 after acquiring an additional 1,091,416 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 49.1% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,781,459 shares of the company’s stock valued at $615,583,000 after acquiring an additional 587,036 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of HCA Healthcare in the 1st quarter valued at about $569,217,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 6,237.9% during the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,350,933 shares of the company’s stock valued at $466,815,000 after buying an additional 1,329,618 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 880,663 shares of the company’s stock valued at $304,313,000 after buying an additional 6,888 shares in the last quarter. 62.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wolfe Research lowered HCA Healthcare from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on HCA Healthcare from $375.00 to $412.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $360.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price target on HCA Healthcare from $404.00 to $401.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $390.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $425.71.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other HCA Healthcare news, EVP Michael S. Cuffe sold 3,836 shares of the company’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 represents a 10.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

HCA Healthcare Price Performance

HCA Healthcare stock opened at $410.71 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $406.07 and a 200-day moving average price of $376.56. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a 1-year low of $289.98 and a 1-year high of $439.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $96.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.26, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.40.

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

HCA Healthcare Announces Dividend

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