Why HCA Healthcare Stock Dropped Today
Shares of HCA Healthcare (NYSE: HCA) fell as much as 10.4% early Tuesday, then settled to trade down 5% as of 11:00 a.m. EDT after the healthcare facilities operator announced lower-than-anticipated quarterly earnings. The company also narrowed its full-year revenue and earnings guidance ranges.
For its third quarter of 2023, revenue grew 8.3% year over year to $16.21 billion, slightly above Wall Street's consensus estimates for revenue of $15.82 billion. On the bottom line, however, that translated to net income of $1.079 billion, or $3.91 per share, attributable to HCA shareholders. That's roughly flat from the same year-ago period and below estimates for earnings of $3.97 per share.
HCA CEO Sam Hazen credited the company's revenue growth to strong demand for its services, insisting that "most aspects of [the] business were positive." At the same time, he also noted HCA's consolidated results were hurt by a weaker-than-expected performance from its physician staffing joint venture with Valesco.
Source Fool.com
