HCA Healthcare shares gain after topping Q1 earnings, revenue expectations

By Sam Boughedda

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:) shares rallied around 6% Friday morning after the company reported earnings for the first quarter, topping consensus profit and revenue expectations.

The Nashville, Tennessee-based firm reported Q1 of $4.85, $0.92 better than the analyst estimate of $3.93, with revenue for the quarter coming in at $15.59 billion versus the consensus estimate of $15.27 billion.

HCA revealed that its same-facility admissions increased by 4.4%, and same-facility equivalent admissions increased by 7.5% in the quarter.

“Once again this quarter, our colleagues demonstrated a remarkable ability to adapt and deliver value across all of our stakeholder groups. Their efforts produced solid results that reflected strong demand for our services. Additionally, the investments we continued to make in our colleagues through various programs contributed to further improvements in key metrics,” said Sam Hazen, chief executive officer of HCA Healthcare.

Looking ahead, HCA sees 2023 EPS between $17.25 and $18.55, versus the consensus of $17.25, with revenue for the year expected to be from $62.5B to $64.5B, versus the consensus of $62.6B.

Reacting to the report, Deutsche Bank analysts maintained a Buy rating and a $280 price target on the stock.

“HCA reported 1Q EBITDA of $3.172b, which contained $145m of revenue / EBITDA from prior period claims dispute with a MCO, which means the normalized 1Q EBITDA was $3.027b and beat consensus of by 4.8% and buy-side expectations of $3b by ~1%. Revenues of $15.591b beat consensus of $15.26b by 2.2% but the star of the show was EBITDA margins which came in 49 bps ahead of consensus at 19.4%,” they wrote.