Advertisement
Australia markets closed
  • ALL ORDS

    8,153.70
    +80.10 (+0.99%)
     
  • ASX 200

    7,896.90
    +77.30 (+0.99%)
     
  • AUD/USD

    0.6517
    -0.0019 (-0.29%)
     
  • OIL

    83.11
    -0.06 (-0.07%)
     
  • GOLD

    2,254.80
    +16.40 (+0.73%)
     
  • Bitcoin AUD

    108,500.49
    +1,949.05 (+1.83%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    885.54
    0.00 (0.00%)
     
  • AUD/EUR

    0.6034
    +0.0003 (+0.05%)
     
  • AUD/NZD

    1.0905
    +0.0026 (+0.23%)
     
  • NZX 50

    12,105.29
    +94.63 (+0.79%)
     
  • NASDAQ

    18,254.69
    -26.15 (-0.14%)
     
  • FTSE

    7,952.62
    +20.64 (+0.26%)
     
  • Dow Jones

    39,807.37
    +47.29 (+0.12%)
     
  • DAX

    18,492.49
    +15.40 (+0.08%)
     
  • Hang Seng

    16,541.42
    +148.58 (+0.91%)
     
  • NIKKEI 225

    40,168.07
    -594.66 (-1.46%)
     

HCA Healthcare (HCA) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

HCA Healthcare (HCA) closed the most recent trading day at $206.16, moving +0.68% from the previous trading session. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.95%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.6%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.04%.

Heading into today, shares of the hospital operator had lost 4.74% over the past month, lagging the Medical sector's loss of 3.2% and outpacing the S&P 500's loss of 7.49% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from HCA Healthcare as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect HCA Healthcare to post earnings of $3.94 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 9.84%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $14.88 billion, up 3.06% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $17.15 per share and revenue of $60.91 billion, which would represent changes of -2% and +3.68%, respectively, from the prior year.

ADVERTISEMENT

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for HCA Healthcare. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 1.19% higher. HCA Healthcare is currently a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Digging into valuation, HCA Healthcare currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 11.94. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 10.37.

Investors should also note that HCA has a PEG ratio of 1.31 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Medical - Hospital industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.58 as of yesterday's close.

The Medical - Hospital industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 214, putting it in the bottom 16% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
 
HCA Healthcare, Inc. (HCA) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.