HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) Releases FY 2024 Earnings Guidance

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) issued an update on its FY 2024 earnings guidance on Friday morning. The company provided earnings per share guidance of 19.700-21.200 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of 20.640. The company issued revenue guidance of $67.8 billion-$70.3 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $69.1 billion. HCA Healthcare also updated its FY24 guidance to $19.70-21.20 EPS.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on HCA Healthcare from $303.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Oppenheimer reissued an outperform rating and set a $315.00 price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of HCA Healthcare from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and increased their price target for the stock from $277.00 to $301.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of HCA Healthcare from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Raymond James raised their target price on shares of HCA Healthcare from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, HCA Healthcare presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $310.88.

HCA Healthcare Price Performance

Shares of HCA opened at $306.69 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $81.11 billion, a PE ratio of 15.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a current ratio of 1.16, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 29.26. HCA Healthcare has a 1-year low of $215.96 and a 1-year high of $335.83. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $323.94 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $295.45.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $5.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.01 by $0.35. The company had revenue of $17.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.81 billion. HCA Healthcare had a net margin of 8.20% and a return on equity of 674.49%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $4.93 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that HCA Healthcare will post 20.58 EPS for the current year.

HCA Healthcare Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be issued a $0.66 dividend. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.86%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. HCA Healthcare’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.16%.

HCA Healthcare announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, January 30th that authorizes the company to repurchase $6.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 7.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other HCA Healthcare news, EVP Michael S. Cuffe sold 3,200 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $306.79, for a total value of $981,728.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 24,929 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,647,967.91. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other HCA Healthcare news, EVP Michael S. Cuffe sold 3,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.79, for a total transaction of $981,728.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 24,929 shares in the company, valued at $7,647,967.91. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Kathleen M. Whalen sold 4,262 shares of HCA Healthcare stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.21, for a total transaction of $1,305,067.02. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 10,250 shares in the company, valued at $3,138,652.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 14,840 shares of company stock worth $4,588,869 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 1.70% of the company’s stock.

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.