Guggenheim Capital LLC Sells 13,343 Shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

Guggenheim Capital LLC lowered its position in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) by 56.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 10,361 shares of the company’s stock after selling 13,343 shares during the period. Guggenheim Capital LLC’s holdings in HCA Healthcare were worth $3,110,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of HCA. Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super acquired a new position in shares of HCA Healthcare in the 4th quarter valued at about $29,846,000. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan bought a new position in shares of HCA Healthcare during the 4th quarter worth approximately $944,000. Mariner LLC increased its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 88,969 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,704,000 after acquiring an additional 823 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in HCA Healthcare by 85.7% during the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,061,891 shares of the company’s stock worth $318,727,000 after acquiring an additional 489,916 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SageView Advisory Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of HCA Healthcare by 11.7% during the fourth quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 839 shares of the company’s stock valued at $252,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the period. 62.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Jennifer Berres sold 9,533 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.59, for a total transaction of $3,075,250.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 15,412 shares in the company, valued at $4,971,757.08. The trade was a 38.22 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 price target on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of HCA Healthcare from $405.00 to $384.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. KeyCorp decreased their target price on shares of HCA Healthcare from $420.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays cut their price target on HCA Healthcare from $392.00 to $366.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, StockNews.com cut HCA Healthcare from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $381.67.

HCA Healthcare Price Performance

HCA Healthcare stock opened at $334.38 on Friday. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a 12 month low of $289.98 and a 12 month high of $417.14. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 69.07. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $328.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $334.13. The company has a market cap of $82.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.22, a PEG ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.48.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last issued its earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The company reported $6.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.03 by $0.19. HCA Healthcare had a net margin of 8.16% and a return on equity of 586.47%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $5.90 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 24.98 EPS for the current year.

HCA Healthcare Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 17th were issued a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.86%. 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 payout ratio is presently 13.11%.

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.