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HCA Healthcare (HCA) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, HCA Healthcare (HCA - Free Report) closed at $274.57, marking a +0.12% move from the previous day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.7%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.57%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 1.06%.

Coming into today, shares of the hospital operator had gained 2.48% in the past month. In that same time, the Medical sector gained 0.86%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.58%.

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 $4.10 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 4.33%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $15.85 billion, up 5.86% from the prior-year quarter.

HCA's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $18.44 per share and revenue of $63.92 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +9.18% and +6.12%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for HCA Healthcare should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.08% higher. HCA Healthcare currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Investors should also note HCA Healthcare's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 14.87. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 14.12, so we one might conclude that HCA Healthcare is trading at a premium comparatively.

Also, we should mention that HCA has a PEG ratio of 1.41. 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. HCA's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.67 as of yesterday's close.

The Medical - Hospital industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 49, which puts it in the top 20% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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