HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) Updates FY24 Earnings Guidance

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) issued an update on its FY24 earnings guidance on Friday morning. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $19.70-21.20 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $20.60. The company issued revenue guidance of $67.75-70.25 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $69.06 billion. HCA Healthcare also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 19.700-21.200 EPS.

HCA Healthcare Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of HCA Healthcare stock opened at $306.69 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $81.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.29, a PEG ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.65. HCA Healthcare has a 12-month low of $215.96 and a 12-month high of $335.83. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $323.94 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $295.45. The company has a current ratio of 1.16, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 29.26.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $5.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.01 by $0.35. The firm had revenue of $17.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.81 billion. HCA Healthcare had a net margin of 8.20% and a return on equity of 674.49%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $4.93 earnings per share. Analysts predict that HCA Healthcare will post 20.58 EPS for the current year.

HCA Healthcare Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be given a dividend of $0.66 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.86%. HCA Healthcare’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.16%.

HCA Healthcare announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, January 30th that permits the company to buyback $6.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to buy up to 7.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays assumed coverage on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. They set an overweight rating and a $356.00 price target on the stock. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of HCA Healthcare from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $315.00 price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an overweight rating and set a $335.00 price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $310.88.

Insider Transactions at HCA Healthcare

In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 876 shares of HCA Healthcare 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $520,474. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 876 shares of HCA Healthcare 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $520,474. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Chad J. Wasserman sold 344 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $321.97, for a total transaction of $110,757.68. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 2,452 shares in the company, valued at $789,470.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 14,840 shares of company stock valued at $4,588,869. Corporate insiders own 1.70% of the company’s stock.

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.