HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) Cut to Market Perform at Raymond James

Raymond James cut shares of HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a report issued on Friday morning, MarketBeat.com reports.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on HCA. TD Cowen lowered their price target on HCA Healthcare from $450.00 to $440.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 28th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on HCA Healthcare in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $427.00 price target for the company. KeyCorp cut their target price on shares of HCA Healthcare from $475.00 to $420.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $396.00 to $392.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded HCA Healthcare to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $385.00.

HCA Healthcare Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE HCA opened at $324.93 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $82.30 billion, a PE ratio of 14.59, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.68. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $379.40 and its 200-day moving average price is $358.70. HCA Healthcare has a 52-week low of $245.84 and a 52-week high of $417.14. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 48.71.

HCA Healthcare Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.66 per share. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. HCA Healthcare’s dividend payout ratio is presently 11.85%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Erol R. Akdamar sold 2,900 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $353.00, for a total value of $1,023,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 6,843 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,415,579. The trade was a 29.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Michael S. Cuffe sold 8,358 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $385.42, for a total value of $3,221,340.36. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 29,678 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,438,494.76. This represents a 21.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 15,155 shares of company stock worth $5,608,990. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HCA Healthcare

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Unigestion Holding SA grew its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 72.2% during the third quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 1,595 shares of the company’s stock valued at $648,000 after buying an additional 669 shares during the last quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 3.8% during the third quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 4,585 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,863,000 after purchasing an additional 167 shares during the period. Sunbelt Securities Inc. increased its stake in HCA Healthcare by 14.0% in the 3rd quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 2,377 shares of the company’s stock worth $966,000 after buying an additional 292 shares during the period. Chiron Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in HCA Healthcare in the 3rd quarter valued at about $3,548,000. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 11.5% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,427 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,374,000 after acquiring an additional 353 shares in the last quarter. 62.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.