HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) Plans $0.66 Quarterly Dividend

HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, April 26th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be given a dividend of 0.66 per share on Friday, June 28th. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.88%.

HCA Healthcare has increased its dividend payment by an average of 50.8% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 4 years. HCA Healthcare has a payout ratio of 11.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect HCA Healthcare to earn $22.91 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.64 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 11.5%.

HCA Healthcare Trading Down 4.2 %

NYSE HCA traded down $13.33 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $300.79. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 262,093 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,082,975. HCA Healthcare has a 52-week low of $215.96 and a 52-week high of $335.83. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $324.24 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $294.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 35.07, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $79.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.65.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $5.36 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.01 by $0.35. HCA Healthcare had a net margin of 8.07% and a return on equity of 996.30%. The firm had revenue of $17.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.81 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $4.93 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that HCA Healthcare will post 20.58 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Raymond James boosted their price target on HCA Healthcare from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered HCA Healthcare from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $277.00 to $301.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $330.00 to $359.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $335.00 price target on shares of HCA Healthcare in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Barclays started coverage on HCA Healthcare in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $356.00 price target on the stock. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, HCA Healthcare presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $310.88.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 876 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $330.25, for a total transaction of $289,299.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,576 shares in the company, valued at $520,474. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 876 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $330.25, for a total transaction of $289,299.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 1,576 shares in the company, valued at $520,474. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Kathryn A. Torres sold 3,861 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.00, for a total transaction of $1,185,327.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 15,899 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,880,993. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 14,840 shares of company stock worth $4,588,869 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

HCA Healthcare declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, January 30th that allows the company to buyback $6.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 7.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.