HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) Announces $0.66 Quarterly Dividend

HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, April 26th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.66 per share on Friday, June 28th. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th.

HCA Healthcare has increased its dividend payment by an average of 50.8% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 4 years. HCA Healthcare has a payout ratio of 11.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect HCA Healthcare to earn $22.91 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.64 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 11.5%.

HCA Healthcare Stock Performance

Shares of HCA stock opened at $306.60 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $81.09 billion, a PE ratio of 16.15, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.65. HCA Healthcare has a one year low of $215.96 and a one year high of $335.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 35.07, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $323.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $295.00.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $5.36 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.01 by $0.35. The business had revenue of $17.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.81 billion. HCA Healthcare had a net margin of 8.07% and a return on equity of 996.30%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $4.93 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that HCA Healthcare will post 20.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on HCA. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $335.00 price target on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of HCA Healthcare from $303.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Barclays assumed coverage on HCA Healthcare in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $356.00 price objective for the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on HCA Healthcare from $330.00 to $359.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of HCA Healthcare from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, HCA Healthcare presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $310.88.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 344 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $321.97, for a total value of $110,757.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 2,452 shares in the company, valued at $789,470.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 344 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $321.97, for a total value of $110,757.68. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 2,452 shares in the company, valued at approximately $789,470.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 876 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $330.25, for a total transaction of $289,299.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 1,576 shares in the company, valued at $520,474. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 14,840 shares of company stock valued at $4,588,869. Corporate insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

HCA Healthcare announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, January 30th that permits the company to buyback $6.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to buy up to 7.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.