Glassy Mountain Advisors Inc. Grows Stock Position in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

Glassy Mountain Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) by 3.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 8,647 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 250 shares during the quarter. Glassy Mountain Advisors Inc.’s holdings in HCA Healthcare were worth $2,595,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in HCA Healthcare during the 4th quarter valued at about $230,000. Choreo LLC boosted its position in HCA Healthcare by 11.9% during the 4th quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 6,026 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,800,000 after acquiring an additional 643 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its position in HCA Healthcare by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 19,448 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,864,000 after acquiring an additional 840 shares in the last quarter. Weaver Capital Management LLC boosted its position in HCA Healthcare by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. Weaver Capital Management LLC now owns 2,747 shares of the company’s stock valued at $825,000 after acquiring an additional 133 shares in the last quarter. Finally, E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB boosted its position in HCA Healthcare by 14.3% during the 4th quarter. E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB now owns 9,030 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,710,000 after acquiring an additional 1,130 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on HCA shares. TD Cowen cut their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $450.00 to $440.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Wells Fargo & Company cut HCA Healthcare from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $400.00 to $320.00 in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on HCA Healthcare from $390.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $405.00 price target on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Raymond James cut HCA Healthcare from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, HCA Healthcare presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $385.67.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Erol R. Akdamar sold 2,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.00, for a total transaction of $1,023,700.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 6,843 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,415,579. This trade represents a 29.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Phillip G. Billington sold 3,897 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.00, for a total transaction of $1,363,950.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 52,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,445,700. This trade represents a 6.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

HCA Healthcare Price Performance

Shares of HCA opened at $324.33 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $82.15 billion, a PE ratio of 14.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 69.07. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $313.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $353.57. 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 quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 24th. The company reported $6.22 EPS 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 period last year, the business posted $5.90 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 24.89 EPS for the current year.

HCA Healthcare Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, March 17th will be issued a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 17th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.89%. This is an increase from HCA Healthcare’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. HCA Healthcare’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.