HCA Healthcare (HCA) Competitors

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) and Alcon (NYSE:ALC) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, media sentiment, risk, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation and community ranking.

Which has better valuation and earnings, HCA or ALC?

HCA Healthcare has higher revenue and earnings than Alcon. HCA Healthcare is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Alcon, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
HCA Healthcare	$70.60B	1.17	$5.76B	$21.97	15.22
Alcon	$9.91B	4.60	$974M	$2.05	45.13

Is HCA or ALC more profitable?

Alcon has a net margin of 11.89% compared to HCA Healthcare's net margin of 8.16%. HCA Healthcare's return on equity of 586.47% beat Alcon's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
HCA Healthcare	8.16%	586.47%	9.93%
Alcon	11.89%	7.17%	5.03%

Which has more volatility & risk, HCA or ALC?

HCA Healthcare has a beta of 1.68, suggesting that its stock price is 68% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alcon has a beta of 1.07, suggesting that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in HCA or ALC?

62.7% of HCA Healthcare shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 53.9% of Alcon shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.6% of HCA Healthcare shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of Alcon shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Is HCA or ALC a better dividend stock?

HCA Healthcare pays an annual dividend of $2.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Alcon pays an annual dividend of $0.26 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. HCA Healthcare pays out 13.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Alcon pays out 12.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Do analysts rate HCA or ALC?

HCA Healthcare presently has a consensus price target of $385.67, suggesting a potential upside of 15.37%. Alcon has a consensus price target of $103.10, suggesting a potential upside of 11.45%. Given HCA Healthcare's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe HCA Healthcare is more favorable than Alcon.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
HCA Healthcare	1 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	12 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.83
Alcon	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.85

Does the MarketBeat Community favor HCA or ALC?

HCA Healthcare received 1032 more outperform votes than Alcon when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 77.39% of users gave HCA Healthcare an outperform vote while only 63.69% of users gave Alcon an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
HCA Healthcare	Outperform Votes 1232 77.39%	Underperform Votes 360 22.61%
Alcon	Outperform Votes 200 63.69%	Underperform Votes 114 36.31%

Does the media favor HCA or ALC?

In the previous week, HCA Healthcare had 23 more articles in the media than Alcon. MarketBeat recorded 33 mentions for HCA Healthcare and 10 mentions for Alcon. HCA Healthcare's average media sentiment score of 0.73 beat Alcon's score of -0.18 indicating that HCA Healthcare is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
HCA Healthcare	25 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	2 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Alcon	0 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Summary

HCA Healthcare beats Alcon on 16 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.