HCA vs. ALC, THC, UHS, EHC, ENSG, ACHC, SEM, USPH, WOOF, and BKD
Should you be buying HCA Healthcare stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of HCA Healthcare include Alcon (ALC), Tenet Healthcare (THC), Universal Health Services (UHS), Encompass Health (EHC), The Ensign Group (ENSG), Acadia Healthcare (ACHC), Select Medical (SEM), U.S. Physical Therapy (USPH), Petco Health and Wellness (WOOF), and Brookdale Senior Living (BKD). These companies are all part of the "health care facilities" industry.
HCA Healthcare vs.
HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) and Alcon (NYSE:ALC) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, community ranking, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, risk, profitability, earnings, valuation and dividends.
In the previous week, HCA Healthcare had 27 more articles in the media than Alcon. MarketBeat recorded 29 mentions for HCA Healthcare and 2 mentions for Alcon. HCA Healthcare's average media sentiment score of 0.85 beat Alcon's score of 0.14 indicating that HCA Healthcare is being referred to more favorably in the media.
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.
HCA Healthcare has a beta of 1.64, suggesting that its stock price is 64% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alcon has a beta of 0.99, suggesting that its stock price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500.
62.7% of HCA Healthcare shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 53.9% of Alcon shares are held by institutional investors. 1.7% of HCA Healthcare shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
HCA Healthcare received 1034 more outperform votes than Alcon when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 77.33% of users gave HCA Healthcare an outperform vote while only 62.99% of users gave Alcon an outperform vote.
Alcon has a net margin of 11.89% compared to HCA Healthcare's net margin of 8.52%. HCA Healthcare's return on equity of 520.98% beat Alcon's return on equity.
HCA Healthcare currently has a consensus price target of $385.27, suggesting a potential upside of 20.97%. Alcon has a consensus price target of $102.72, suggesting a potential upside of 15.87%. Given HCA Healthcare's higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe HCA Healthcare is more favorable than Alcon.
Summary
HCA Healthcare beats Alcon on 14 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding {thisCompany.Symbol} and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
HCA Healthcare Competitors List
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This page (NYSE:HCA) was last updated on 1/22/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
