Teacher Retirement System of Texas Grows Position in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its holdings in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) by 16.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 105,404 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,819 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in HCA Healthcare were worth $31,637,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC raised its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 322.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,141,769 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,276,909,000 after purchasing an additional 2,397,883 shares in the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. increased its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 62.0% in the 4th quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 1,500,786 shares of the company’s stock worth $450,461,000 after buying an additional 574,239 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 120.1% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 873,775 shares of the company’s stock worth $262,264,000 after buying an additional 476,756 shares during the period. Meritage Group LP acquired a new position in HCA Healthcare in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $150,548,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in HCA Healthcare in the 4th quarter worth approximately $74,121,000. 62.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on HCA. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $405.00 to $384.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $405.00 price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare in a report on Monday, January 27th. KeyCorp cut their target price on HCA Healthcare from $420.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Raymond James downgraded HCA Healthcare from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Bank of America cut their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $380.00 to $370.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $385.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Jennifer Berres sold 9,533 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.59, for a total transaction of $3,075,250.47. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 15,412 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,971,757.08. The trade was a 38.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

HCA Healthcare Stock Performance

Shares of HCA opened at $333.68 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $320.98 and a 200-day simple moving average of $343.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 69.07, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $82.15 billion, a PE ratio of 15.19, a PEG ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.68. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a 1 year low of $289.98 and a 1 year high of $417.14.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last posted its earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The company reported $6.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.03 by $0.19. HCA Healthcare had a return on equity of 586.47% and a net margin of 8.16%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $5.90 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 24.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, March 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. This is a boost from HCA Healthcare’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 17th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.86%. HCA Healthcare’s payout ratio is presently 13.11%.

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.