Simplicity Wealth LLC Makes New $229,000 Investment in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

Simplicity Wealth LLC purchased a new position in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 762 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $229,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of HCA Healthcare in the third quarter worth $39,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of HCA Healthcare in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Activest Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 1,250.0% in the fourth quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 135 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the period. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. grew its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 50.0% in the fourth quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. now owns 150 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Finally, Eastern Bank purchased a new stake in shares of HCA Healthcare in the fourth quarter valued at about $62,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on HCA. Raymond James cut shares of HCA Healthcare from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $406.00 to $355.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $380.00 price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 target price on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of HCA Healthcare from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $400.00 to $320.00 in a research report on Monday, November 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $385.67.

HCA Healthcare Stock Down 3.8 %

Shares of HCA stock opened at $323.33 on Wednesday. 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’s 50 day simple moving average is $317.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $346.50. The company has a market capitalization of $79.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.72, a PEG ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.68. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a twelve month low of $289.98 and a twelve month high of $417.14.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The company reported $6.22 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 24.98 EPS for the current year.

HCA Healthcare Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be issued a $0.72 dividend. This is an increase from HCA Healthcare’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.89%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 17th. HCA Healthcare’s dividend payout ratio is 13.11%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Jennifer Berres sold 9,533 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 15,412 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,971,757.08. This represents a 38.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

HCA Healthcare Company 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.