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If You Invested $1000 in HCA Healthcare a Decade Ago, This is How Much It'd Be Worth Now

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For most investors, how much a stock's price changes over time is important. This factor can impact your investment portfolio as well as 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.

HCA Healthcare is the largest non-governmental operator of acute care hospitals in the United States. Headquartered in Nashville, TN, it operates hospitals and related health care entities. At the end of 2023, the company operated 186 hospitals and approximately 2,400 ambulatory sites of care, including surgery centers, freestanding emergency rooms, urgent care centers and physician clinics, in 20 states and the United Kingdom.

It also operates outpatient health care facilities, which include freestanding ambulatory surgery centers (“ASCs”), freestanding emergency care facilities, urgent care facilities, walk-in clinics, diagnostic and imaging centers, comprehensive rehabilitation and physical therapy centers, radiation and oncology therapy centers, physician practices and various other facilities.

The company operates in two geographically organized groups, the National and American Groups. HCA generated revenues of $65 billion in 2023.

The National Group (accounted for 27.9% of the overall 2023 revenues) had 57 hospitals located in states like Alaska, California, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia. The American Group (34.4%) has 60 hospitals in states like Colorado, Central Kansas, Louisiana and Texas.

Its Atlantic Group (32.6%) included 62 hospitals located in Florida, Georgia, Northern Kansas, Missouri and South Carolina. The company also operates seven hospitals in England that are included in the Corporate and Other group (5.2%).

The company's 178 general, acute care hospitals with 48,755 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. The general, acute care hospitals also provide outpatient services such as outpatient surgery, laboratory, radiology, respiratory therapy, cardiology and physical therapy.

Its six behavioral hospitals with 653 licensed beds offer child, adolescent and adult psychiatric care. It also provides adolescent and adult alcohol and drug abuse treatment and counseling.

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 August 2014 would be worth $5,555.96, or a gain of 455.60%, as of August 14, 2024, according to our calculations. This return excludes dividends but includes price appreciation.

In comparison, the S&P 500 gained 179.16% and the price of gold went up 80.56% over the same time frame.

Analysts are forecasting more upside for HCA too.

HCA Healthcare beat earnings estimates by 10.7% in the second quarter. Its revenues remain on an uptick on the back of growth in admissions and inpatient surgeries, and the resumption of deferred elective procedures is likely to sustain the trend. It expects revenues and equivalent admissions to grow 8.9% and 3-4%, year over year in 2024, respectively. Multiple buyouts aided in increasing patient volumes and added hospitals to the portfolio. The company has been gaining from its telemedicine business line. The company resorts to prudent capital deployment via share buybacks and dividend payments. HCA Healthcare paid dividends worth $171 million in the second quarter of 2024. Its shares have outperformed the industry in the year-to-date period. Consequently, it is expected to offer substantial upside potential from the current price levels.

Shares have gained 15.66% over the past four weeks and there have been 7 higher earnings estimate revisions for fiscal 2024 compared to none lower. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.

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