If You Invested $1000 in HCA Healthcare 10 Years Ago, This Is How Much You'd Have Now
How much a stock's price changes over time is a significant driver for most investors. Not only can price performance impact your portfolio, but it can help you compare investment results across sectors and industries as well.
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) 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 US. 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.
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. HCA generated revenues of $65 billion in 2023. The National Group accounted for 50% of the overall revenues, while the American Group made up 45% of the same.
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, 2022, 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 takes a combination of a few things: research, patience, and a little bit of risk. So, if you had invested in HCA Healthcare a decade ago, you're probably feeling pretty good about your investment today.
According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in February 2014 would be worth $6,155.16, or a 515.52% gain, as of February 5, 2024. Investors should keep in mind that this return excludes dividends but includes price appreciation.
The S&P 500 rose 178.17% and the price of gold increased 55.50% over the same time frame in comparison.
Analysts are forecasting more upside for HCA too.
HCA Healthcare’s revenues increase on the back of a surge in admissions and outpatient surgeries. It expects equivalent admissions to grow in the range of 3-4% in 2024. Significant growth in its Managed Medicare operations is expected to drive its performance. Multiple buyouts aided in increasing patient volumes, enabled network expansion and added hospitals to the portfolio. EPS is predicted to be within $19.7-$21.2 in 2024, higher than the 2023 figure. The company has been gaining from its telemedicine business line. HCA resorts to prudent capital deployment via share buybacks and dividend payments. It increased its quarterly dividend by 10% to 66 cents in the first quarter of 2024. Its shares have outperformed the industry in the past year. However, escalating operating expenses due to higher salaries and benefits remain a concern.
Over the past four weeks, shares have rallied 12.17%, and there have been 8 higher earnings estimate revisions in the past two months for fiscal 2024 compared to none lower. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.
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
