Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB Sells 184 Shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB reduced its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) by 10.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,508 shares of the company’s stock after selling 184 shares during the quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB’s holdings in HCA Healthcare were worth $453,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in HCA. Generate Investment Management Ltd purchased a new stake in HCA Healthcare in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,537,000. Live Oak Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in HCA Healthcare by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Live Oak Private Wealth LLC now owns 35,026 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,513,000 after purchasing an additional 1,307 shares in the last quarter. Prairie Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Prairie Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 700 shares of the company’s stock valued at $210,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Graphene Investments SAS lifted its position in HCA Healthcare by 20.3% during the 4th quarter. Graphene Investments SAS now owns 9,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,851,000 after acquiring an additional 1,600 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd raised its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 6.8% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 24,267 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,284,000 after purchasing an additional 1,538 shares during the last quarter. 62.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Erol R. Akdamar sold 2,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $353.00, for a total transaction of $1,023,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 6,843 shares in the company, valued at $2,415,579. This trade represents a 29.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Phillip G. Billington sold 3,897 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.00, for a total value of $1,363,950.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 52,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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. Corporate insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HCA has been the topic of a number of research reports. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $380.00 to $370.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Barclays lowered their target price on HCA Healthcare from $392.00 to $366.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered HCA Healthcare from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $400.00 to $320.00 in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of HCA Healthcare from $405.00 to $384.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered HCA Healthcare from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, HCA Healthcare has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $385.67.

HCA Healthcare Stock Performance

HCA opened at $323.71 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $81.99 billion, a PE ratio of 14.73, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.64. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $313.56 and its 200 day moving average price is $353.26. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a twelve month low of $289.98 and a twelve month high of $417.14. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 69.07.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last issued its earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The company reported $6.22 earnings per share (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 in the previous year, the company posted $5.90 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 24.98 EPS 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be given a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 17th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.89%. This is an increase from HCA Healthcare’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. HCA Healthcare’s payout ratio is currently 12.02%.

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.