California Public Employees Retirement System Buys 9,015 Shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA - Free Report) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 353,702 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 9,015 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System owned 0.14% of HCA Healthcare worth $106,164,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE grew its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 1,039 shares of the company's stock valued at $312,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in HCA Healthcare by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC now owns 12,787 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,838,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the period. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd now owns 10,592 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,153,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. Prairie Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Prairie Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 700 shares of the company's stock worth $210,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. boosted its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 1,195 shares of the company's stock valued at $359,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.73% of the company's stock.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on HCA. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $405.00 target price on shares of HCA Healthcare in a report on Monday, January 27th. Morgan Stanley decreased 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. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of HCA Healthcare from $392.00 to $366.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 27th. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on HCA Healthcare from $420.00 to $370.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their target price on HCA Healthcare from $380.00 to $370.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $385.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at HCA Healthcare

In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Jennifer Berres sold 9,533 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.59, for a total value of $3,075,250.47. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 15,412 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,971,757.08. The trade was a 38.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.30% of the company's stock.

HCA Healthcare Price Performance

Shares of HCA Healthcare stock traded up $1.75 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $347.48. The stock had a trading volume of 1,249,318 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,349,682. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 69.07, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The business has a fifty day moving average of $326.35 and a two-hundred day moving average of $340.30. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $289.98 and a fifty-two week high of $417.14. The firm has a market cap of $85.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.82, a PEG ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.68.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The company reported $6.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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 business posted $5.90 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 24.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 17th were paid a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 17th. This is a positive change 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.