Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd Boosts Stock Position in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd increased its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) by 3.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,778 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd’s holdings in HCA Healthcare were worth $723,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HCA. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. purchased a new stake in HCA Healthcare in the 2nd quarter valued at about $131,527,000. Darsana Capital Partners LP grew its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 53.3% in the 2nd quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 1,150,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $369,472,000 after buying an additional 400,000 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in HCA Healthcare in the 1st quarter valued at about $95,882,000. Argent Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 1,215.6% in the 2nd quarter. Argent Capital Management LLC now owns 160,275 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,493,000 after buying an additional 148,092 shares during the period. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. lifted its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 16.4% in the 2nd quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 631,854 shares of the company’s stock valued at $203,002,000 after purchasing an additional 88,948 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.73% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Michael S. Cuffe sold 8,358 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $385.42, for a total transaction of $3,221,340.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 29,678 shares in the company, valued at $11,438,494.76. This represents a 21.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Erol R. Akdamar sold 2,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider now owns 6,843 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,415,579. The trade was a 29.76 % 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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on HCA. Raymond James lowered HCA Healthcare from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday. Wolfe Research raised HCA Healthcare to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $405.00 to $438.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. KeyCorp reduced their price target on HCA Healthcare from $475.00 to $420.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on HCA Healthcare from $378.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $380.29.

HCA Healthcare Price Performance

Shares of NYSE HCA opened at $325.50 on Tuesday. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a twelve month low of $245.84 and a twelve month high of $417.14. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 48.71. The company has a market capitalization of $82.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.68. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $377.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $358.72.

HCA Healthcare Dividend Announcement

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

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.