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Here's How Much You'd Have If You Invested $1000 in HCA Healthcare a Decade Ago

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How much a stock's price changes over time is important for most investors, since price performance can both impact your investment portfolio and help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.

Another factor that can influence investors is FOMO, or the fear of missing out, especially with tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in HCA Healthcare (HCA - Free Report) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to HCA for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

HCA Healthcare's Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at HCA Healthcare's main business drivers.

Effective May 8, 2017, the company’s name was changed to HCA Healthcare, Inc.  from HCA Holdings, Inc. It is the largest non-governmental operator of acute care hospitals in the U.S. Headquartered in Nashville, TN, it operates hospitals and related health care entities.

At the end of 2021, the company operated 182 hospitals and approximately 2,200 ambulatory sites of care, including surgery centers, freestanding emergency rooms, urgent care centers and physician clinics, in 20 states and the United Kingdom.

The general, acute care hospitals also provide outpatient services such as outpatient surgery, laboratory, radiology, respiratory therapy, cardiology and physical therapy. It operates in two geographically organized groups – the National and American Groups.

The National Group includes 96 hospitals across Alaska, California, Florida, southern Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, northern Kentucky, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah and Virginia.

The American Group includes 79 hospitals across Colorado, northern Georgia, Kansas, southern Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas. The company also operates six hospitals in England that are included in the Corporate and Other group.

The company's general, acute care hospitals with 48,030 licensed beds provide a wide range of services to cater to different medical specialties, such as internal medicine, general surgery, cardiology, oncology, neurosurgery, orthopedics and obstetrics as well as diagnostic and emergency services. As of Dec 31, 2020, HCA Healthcare’s five psychiatric hospitals with 593 licensed beds offered a full range of mental health care services through inpatient, partial hospitalization and outpatient settings. 

Bottom Line

Anyone can invest, but building a successful investment portfolio requires research, patience, and a little bit of risk. So, if you had invested in HCA Healthcare ten years ago, you're likely feeling pretty good about your investment today.

A $1000 investment made in January 2013 would be worth $6,752.78, or a gain of 575.28%, as of January 27, 2023, according to our calculations. This return excludes dividends but includes price appreciation.

The S&P 500 rose 170.16% and the price of gold increased 11.71% over the same time frame in comparison.

Going forward, analysts are expecting more upside for HCA.

HCA Healthcare’s shares have outperformed the industry in a year. Revenues are bouncing back, courtesy of a surge in admissions, outpatient surgeries and other procedures. Multiple buyouts aided it in increasing patient volumes, enabled network expansion, added hospitals to its portfolio and boosted business scale. Revenues are estimated to grow by 3% year over year in 2022. The company has been gaining from its telemedicine business line. As of Sep 30, 2022, it had $3.1 billion left under its buyback authorization. However, the company's escalating operating expenses have been weighing on the margins. A lowered 2022 guidance for earnings per share ($16.40-$17.60, a fall of 19.7% from the 2021 figure) remains a concern. Also, declining operating cash flows indicates weaknesses in operations. As such, the stock warrants a cautious stance.

Shares have gained 6.02% over the past four weeks and there have been 1 higher earnings estimate revisions for fiscal 2022 compared to none lower. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.

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