CENTRAL TRUST Co Decreases Stock Holdings in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

CENTRAL TRUST Co lowered its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) by 18.0% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 905 shares of the company’s stock after selling 198 shares during the quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co’s holdings in HCA Healthcare were worth $313,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE increased its stake in HCA Healthcare by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 1,039 shares of the company’s stock worth $312,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of HCA Healthcare by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 12,787 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,838,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. lifted its position in HCA Healthcare by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 1,195 shares of the company’s stock worth $359,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Barden Capital Management Inc. increased its position in HCA Healthcare by 1.4% during the first quarter. Barden Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,921 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,009,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,471 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,042,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares during the period. 62.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on HCA. Wall Street Zen upgraded HCA Healthcare from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley set a $410.00 target price on shares of HCA Healthcare and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 9th. Guggenheim began coverage on HCA Healthcare in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. They issued a “neutral” rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of HCA Healthcare from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $320.00 to $385.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Finally, Baird R W lowered shares of HCA Healthcare from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, HCA Healthcare presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $392.47.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other HCA Healthcare news, COO Jon M. Foster sold 15,698 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $369.32, for a total transaction of $5,797,585.36. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 12,646 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,670,420.72. The trade was a 55.38% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

HCA Healthcare Stock Performance

Shares of HCA stock opened at $376.57 on Friday. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a 12-month low of $289.98 and a 12-month high of $417.14. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $361.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $334.42. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 69.07. The company has a market cap of $90.59 billion, a PE ratio of 16.74, a PEG ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.49.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $6.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.75 by $0.70. The business had revenue of $18.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.26 billion. HCA Healthcare had a return on equity of 1,063.91% and a net margin of 8.07%. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $5.36 earnings per share. Analysts expect that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 24.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th will be given a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 16th. HCA Healthcare’s payout ratio is 12.81%.

HCA Healthcare 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.