HCA Healthcare Inc (NYSE: HCA) Stock Declined -2.79% Last Week – That’s Proof That Its Volatility Isn’t Going Anywhere

HCA Healthcare Inc (NYSE:HCA) does about 1.40M shares in volume on a normal day but saw 1788097 shares change hands in the recent trading day. The company now has a market cap of 78.91B USD. Its current market price is $309.60, marking a decrease of -1.38% compared to the previous close of $313.93. The 52 week high reached by this stock is $417.14 whilst the lowest price level in 52 weeks is $263.22. The script in recent trading has seen the stock touch a high of $441 and a low of $400.

HCA Healthcare Inc (HCA) has a 20-day trading average at $323.65 and the current price is -25.78% off the 52-week high compared with 17.62% distance from its 52-week low. The 50-day simple moving average of the closing price is $355.02 and its 200-day simple moving average is $347.15. If we look at the stock’s price movements over the week, volatility stands at 2.12%, which increases to 2.29% over 1 month. It is also key to look at other market indicators of price movement for the stock, where we see that the relative strength index (RSI) is at 22.77 to suggest the stock is oversold.

20 analysts observing the HCA Healthcare Inc (HCA) stock have set the 12-month price targets for the company’s shares at between $400 and $441. The consensus objective for the share price is $402.55, suggesting that the stock has a potential upside of 23.09% over the period. The median price target is 27.15% away from the current levels at $425.

FactSet Research has provided data showing that 20 brokerages have issued ratings for the stock. 0 analysts have rated it as a sell, while 0 advise that it is a overweight. 17 analysts have rated it as a buy and 3 have advised that investors hold their positions. The consensus recommendation rating is Buy and Wall Street’s advice is for investors to Strong Buy the stock.

The company shares received a number of brokerage firm price updates over the past month, with the latest being on November 25, 2024 when Wells Fargo downgraded the stock to “Underweight” and issued a price target of between $400 and $320. KeyBanc Capital Markets initiated its price target at $475.

The current price level is -4.34%, -12.79%, and -10.82% away from its SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200 respectively, with the HCA price moving above the 50-day SMA on current market day. HCA Healthcare Inc (HCA) stock is down -2.79% over the week and -10.39% over the past month. Its price is 14.38% year-to-date and 12.23% over the past year.

The company’s next earnings report forecasts estimating quarterly EPS at 6.16 and 21.93 for whole year. Expected sales for next quarter are $18.28B, which analysts say will come at $70.54B for the current fiscal year and next year at $74.78B. In addition, estimates put the company’s current quarterly revenue at an average of $18.23B.

Its 12-month price target is $425. To reach the target analysts have set, the stock logically needs to grow 23.09 percent from here. Of course, the average price target is just what the average analysts believe a stock will be worth in the next 52 weeks, and is only one metric. There are analysts with lower targets than the average, including one bearish Wall Street research firm advocating investors to wait for the price to pull back to $400, given the recent momentum. And then, on the bullish side of things, one analyst is expecting the stock to peak at $441.

The company has a return on investment of 15.59%. The price to earnings ratio (P/E ratio) amounts to 13.90 while the forward price to earnings ratio is 12.58. The beta has a value of 1.64. Price to sales ratio is 1.13.