Achmea Investment Management B.V. Purchases 7,945 Shares of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA)

Achmea Investment Management B.V. raised its holdings in HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) by 22.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 43,249 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,945 shares during the quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V.’s holdings in HCA Healthcare were worth $12,981,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd acquired a new position in shares of HCA Healthcare in the fourth quarter valued at about $8,627,000. Vestcor Inc grew its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. Vestcor Inc now owns 11,067 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,322,000 after acquiring an additional 602 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in HCA Healthcare by 117.5% during the fourth quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 92,495 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,762,000 after buying an additional 49,968 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of HCA Healthcare by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,076 shares of the company’s stock worth $923,000 after acquiring an additional 218 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PFG Advisors increased its position in shares of HCA Healthcare by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. PFG Advisors now owns 1,821 shares of the company’s stock valued at $547,000 after buying an additional 109 shares in the last quarter. 62.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

HCA Healthcare Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of HCA Healthcare stock opened at $314.71 on Friday. HCA Healthcare, Inc. has a 12-month low of $289.98 and a 12-month high of $417.14. The stock has a market cap of $77.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.32, a PEG ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.68. 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 company has a fifty day simple moving average of $318.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $346.05.

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) last posted its earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The company reported $6.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.03 by $0.19. HCA Healthcare had a return on equity of 586.47% and a net margin of 8.16%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $5.90 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that HCA Healthcare, Inc. will post 24.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HCA Healthcare Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be given a dividend of $0.72 per share. This is an increase from HCA Healthcare’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 17th. HCA Healthcare’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.11%.

Insider Activity

In other HCA Healthcare news, SVP Jennifer Berres sold 9,533 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.59, for a total transaction of $3,075,250.47. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 15,412 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,971,757.08. This represents a 38.22 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on HCA. Barclays cut their price objective 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. Raymond James lowered shares of HCA Healthcare from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research report on Monday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a “neutral” rating and set a $380.00 price target on shares of HCA Healthcare in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of HCA Healthcare from $430.00 to $390.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, HCA Healthcare presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $385.67.

About HCA Healthcare

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.