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HCA Healthcare (HCA) Competitors

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$335.42 -5.20 (-1.53%)
Closing price 03:59 PM Eastern
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$326.50 -8.92 (-2.66%)
As of 06:08 PM Eastern
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HCA vs. ALC, THC, UHS, EHC, ENSG, ACHC, SEM, BKD, USPH, and WOOF

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), Brookdale Senior Living (BKD), U.S. Physical Therapy (USPH), and Petco Health and Wellness (WOOF). These companies are all part of the "health care facilities" industry.

HCA Healthcare vs.

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

Alcon pays an annual dividend of $0.26 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. HCA Healthcare pays an annual dividend of $2.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Alcon pays out 12.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. HCA Healthcare pays out 13.1% 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.

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
Alcon11.89% 7.17% 5.03%
HCA Healthcare 8.16%586.47%9.93%

HCA Healthcare received 1029 more outperform votes than Alcon when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 77.24% of users gave HCA Healthcare an outperform vote while only 63.64% of users gave Alcon an outperform vote.

CompanyUnderperformOutperform
AlconOutperform Votes
203
63.64%
Underperform Votes
116
36.36%
HCA HealthcareOutperform Votes
1232
77.24%
Underperform Votes
363
22.76%

Alcon has a beta of 0.99, indicating that its stock price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, HCA Healthcare has a beta of 1.48, indicating that its stock price is 48% more volatile than the S&P 500.

In the previous week, HCA Healthcare had 37 more articles in the media than Alcon. MarketBeat recorded 45 mentions for HCA Healthcare and 8 mentions for Alcon. HCA Healthcare's average media sentiment score of 1.09 beat Alcon's score of 0.29 indicating that HCA Healthcare is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
Alcon
1 Very Positive mention(s)
3 Positive mention(s)
2 Neutral mention(s)
1 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Neutral
HCA Healthcare
28 Very Positive mention(s)
2 Positive mention(s)
12 Neutral mention(s)
1 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive

Alcon presently has a consensus price target of $106.22, indicating a potential upside of 15.54%. HCA Healthcare has a consensus price target of $381.67, indicating a potential upside of 12.77%. Given Alcon's higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Alcon is more favorable than HCA Healthcare.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
Alcon
0 Sell rating(s)
4 Hold rating(s)
10 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.71
HCA Healthcare
1 Sell rating(s)
5 Hold rating(s)
11 Buy rating(s)
2 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.74

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.

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
Alcon$9.91B4.58$974M$2.0544.85
HCA Healthcare$70.60B1.18$5.76B$21.9715.40

53.9% of Alcon shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 62.7% of HCA Healthcare shares are held by institutional investors. 1.5% of Alcon shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of HCA Healthcare shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

HCA Healthcare beats Alcon on 15 of the 21 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.
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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.
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HCA vs. The Competition

MetricHCA HealthcareGeneral medical & surgical hospitals IndustryMedical SectorNYSE Exchange
Market Cap$83.38B$12.38B$5.36B$18.67B
Dividend Yield0.85%0.65%5.11%4.24%
P/E Ratio15.415.2921.7631.32
Price / Sales1.180.56381.6526.45
Price / Cash8.956.8638.1517.54
Price / Book151.7731.426.484.32
Net Income$5.76B$1.20B$3.20B$1.02B
7 Day Performance2.23%4.33%6.97%7.19%
1 Month Performance5.82%-2.44%-8.33%-6.37%
1 Year Performance4.90%5.76%10.06%1.78%

HCA Healthcare Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
HCA
HCA Healthcare
4.7896 of 5 stars
$335.42
-1.5%
$381.67
+13.8%
+5.6%$82.58B$70.60B15.27294,000Analyst Forecast
Positive News
ALC
Alcon
2.8983 of 5 stars
$90.76
+1.3%
$106.22
+17.0%
+11.4%$44.77B$9.91B38.7925,200Short Interest ↑
THC
Tenet Healthcare
4.9699 of 5 stars
$122.69
-0.9%
$166.33
+35.6%
+24.2%$11.67B$20.67B3.81102,400Analyst Forecast
Short Interest ↓
News Coverage
Positive News
Gap Down
UHS
Universal Health Services
4.9871 of 5 stars
$177.74
+1.3%
$228.77
+28.7%
+7.2%$11.55B$15.83B11.8293,800Analyst Forecast
EHC
Encompass Health
4.0484 of 5 stars
$102.64
+0.5%
$107.67
+4.9%
+28.4%$10.34B$5.37B23.0135,000News Coverage
Positive News
ENSG
The Ensign Group
4.7107 of 5 stars
$128.93
+0.8%
$165.17
+28.1%
+8.9%$7.41B$4.26B25.2329,900Positive News
ACHC
Acadia Healthcare
4.534 of 5 stars
$26.24
+0.3%
$50.39
+92.0%
-63.9%$2.44B$3.15B8.6023,000
SEM
Select Medical
4.9263 of 5 stars
$16.49
+0.4%
$27.25
+65.3%
-40.8%$2.13B$5.19B9.9953,800Positive News
BKD
Brookdale Senior Living
3.4571 of 5 stars
$6.14
+6.8%
$7.40
+20.5%
-3.7%$1.23B$3.13B-6.9036,000Short Interest ↓
News Coverage
Gap Down
USPH
U.S. Physical Therapy
3.675 of 5 stars
$68.90
-0.6%
$109.00
+58.2%
-31.9%$1.05B$671.35M73.306,140News Coverage
Positive News
WOOF
Petco Health and Wellness
3.5669 of 5 stars
$3.22
-4.2%
$4.11
+27.6%
+90.7%$1.01B$6.12B-8.0528,500Positive News
Gap Down
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This page (NYSE:HCA) was last updated on 4/15/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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