HCA Healthcare (HCA) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know
HCA Healthcare (HCA) closed the most recent trading day at $169.39, moving -1.86% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.15%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.52%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.34%.
Heading into today, shares of the hospital operator had lost 12.26% over the past month, lagging the Medical sector's gain of 0.72% and the S&P 500's loss of 5.08% in that time.
HCA Healthcare will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be July 22, 2022. The company is expected to report EPS of $3.78, down 13.5% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $14.85 billion, up 2.86% from the year-ago period.
HCA's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $16.90 per share and revenue of $60.89 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -3.43% and +3.63%, respectively.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for HCA Healthcare. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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.
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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 1.49% lower. HCA Healthcare is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).
Digging into valuation, HCA Healthcare currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 10.22. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 10.72, so we one might conclude that HCA Healthcare is trading at a discount comparatively.
Investors should also note that HCA has a PEG ratio of 1.18 right now. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. HCA's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.38 as of yesterday's close.
The Medical - Hospital industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 204, which puts it in the bottom 20% 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.
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