Shares of HCA Healthcare Inc (NYSE:HCA) were rising on Monday, after the company reported its second-quarter results on Friday.
Here are some key analyst takeaways:
- KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Matthew Gillmor maintained an Overweight rating, while cutting the price target from $475 to $435.
- RBC Capital Markets analyst Ben Hendrix reiterated an Outperform rating and price target of $435.
Check out other analyst stock ratings.
KeyBanc Capital Markets: HCA Healthcare’s EBITDA grew 4.6% year-on-year to $4.027 billion, coming in slightly ahead of Street expectations of $3.950 billion, Gillmor said in a note. He added, however, that the results included around $400 million of incremental Medicaid supplemental payments that the consensus did not reflect.
The analyst noted that HCA Healthcare’s results were negatively impacted by two factors:
- $400 million from more HIX (Health Insurance Exchange) patients losing coverage.
- Weaker surgical trends, with inpatient surgeries down 2.3% and same store outpatient surgeries down 3.4%.
These negative factors were partially offset by strong medical volumes and expense management, he further stated.
RBC Capital Markets: HCA Healthcare reset its core EBITDA growth expectations for 2026 more in line with its long-term historical target of 4%-6%, “given the pronounced ACA (Affordable Care Act) payer mix headwind and persistent surgical volume softness,” Hendrix said.
The analyst stated that management raised their full-year HIX headwind estimate to a range of -$1.0 billion to -$1.2 billion, citing two “assumptions that failed to materialize,” namely:
- The assumption that 15%-20% of patients losing exchange coverage would transition to employer-sponsored insurance, rather than becoming uninsured.
- The expectations that the newly uninsured population would result in lower hospital utilization. While exchange equivalent admissions declined by around 22,000 same-facility year to-date, uninsured equivalent admissions were up around 26,500.
“Same-facility inpatient surgeries declined 2.3% and outpatient surgeries declined 3.4% in the quarter, with elective inpatient surgeries down 6% year-to-date versus -2% in 2025,” he further wrote.
HCA Stock Price Activity: HCA Healthcare shares were up 1.79% at $389.05 at the time of publication on Monday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
