HCA Healthcare, Inc. (HCA) Stock

HCA Healthcare, Inc. (HCA) is a Healthcare stock trading at $428.68 (as of 2026-08-25), with a market capitalization of $95.10B and a trailing P/E of 14.0. Figures are sourced from first-party U.S. SEC EDGAR filings and market data.

HCA Healthcare, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides health care services company in the United States. The company operates general and acute care hospitals that offers medical and surgical services, including inpatient care, intensive care, cardiac care, diagnostic, and emergency services; and outpatient services, such as outpatient surgery, laboratory, radiology, respiratory therapy, cardiology, and physical therapy. It also operates outpatient health care facilities consisting of freestanding ambulatory surgery centers, freestanding emergency care facilities, urgent care facilities, walk-in clinics, diagnostic and imaging centers, rehabilitation and physical therapy centers, radiation and oncology therapy centers, physician practices, and various other facilities. In addition, the company operates psychiatric hospitals, which provide therapeutic programs comprising child, adolescent and adult psychiatric care, adolescent and adult alcohol, drug abuse treatment, and counseling services. As of December 31, 2021, it operated 182 hospitals, including 175 general and acute care hospitals, five psychiatric hospitals, and two rehabilitation hospitals; 125 freestanding surgery centers; and 21 freestanding endoscopy centers in 20 states and England. The company was formerly known as HCA Holdings, Inc. HCA Healthcare, Inc. was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.

Understand HCA Healthcare, Inc.: how it makes money

HCA operates the largest for-profit hospital and outpatient network in the US, earning revenue from inpatient stays, emergency care, ambulatory surgery, and walk-in clinics. Revenue follows a volume-times-price model: equivalent admissions flowing through a fixed bed base at 75.5% occupancy, with payer-set pricing as the key swing factor.

Profit scales with equivalent admissions into a large, fixed bed and outpatient-facility base at 75.5% occupancy, where the binding constraint on earnings is how much Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial payers will remit per admission, not how many patients HCA can physically serve.

Business quality (Solid): Solid franchise. A 12% operating margin on ~$19.1B of quarterly revenue with low-leverage, high-cash-flow operations. Trades at a 45% discount to the Healthcare Services peer set, reflecting policy overhang rather than operational weakness.

Valuation: At 14× earnings, HCA trades 45% below the Healthcare Services average (25×). Note: the low multiple may reflect one-time earnings items.

Bull case

Steady volume growth ahead: Management guides to 2%-3% equivalent-admission growth in 2026, supported by underlying demand for both inpatient and outpatient care. At 75.5% occupancy, that incremental volume flows through existing capacity with minimal added fixed cost.
Cash funders their own expansion: Operating cash flow reached $12.6 billion in 2025, up 20% year over year, giving HCA the internal capital to execute nearly $7 billion of approved inpatient and outpatient projects without adding balance-sheet leverage.
Trades 45% below industry multiple: HCA carries a 14.0x P/E versus a 25.3x Healthcare Services industry average, a 45% discount that embeds pessimism about policy but is hard to reconcile with a 12% operating margin and consistent same-facility admissions growth.

Bear case

Policy reforms hit earnings directly: Exchange reforms and subsidy expiration are modeled to reduce adjusted EBITDA by $600-$900 million, a structural revenue loss outside management's control that could persist well beyond the 2026 fiscal year.
Physician costs outpacing revenue growth: Management flags physician compensation growing at high-single-digit rates in 2026, a cost line that will outpace the 2%-3% revenue growth guide and pressure the 12% operating margin unless closer to par pricing follows.
Exchange volumes set to contract: Management models a 15%-20% decline in health-exchange volumes as subsidies roll off, eroding a segment of insured patients who historically generate higher-acuity ER and inpatient utilization at the freestanding and hospital-based facilities.

Valuation — source: SEC EDGAR (first-party)
Price	$428.68
Market Cap	$95.10B
P/E Ratio	14.0
EV / EBITDA	10.6
Price / Sales	1.24
FCF Yield	8.3%
DCF Value (model)	$704.03
DCF Upside vs Price	64.2%

Profitability & Growth — source: SEC EDGAR
Revenue (TTM)	$75.60B
Net Margin	9.0%
Revenue Growth (YoY)	4.3%
EPS Growth (YoY)	11.2%
FCF Growth (YoY)	35.6%

Financial Health — source: SEC EDGAR
Altman Z-Score	2.54 (grey)

Valuation vs Sector & Industry
Stock P/E	14.0
Sector P/E (Healthcare)	21.9
Industry P/E (Healthcare Services)	25.4
vs Sector	-36.2%
vs Industry	-44.9%

Smart-Money Activity — SEC Form 4 / 13F / Congressional disclosures
Top Institutional Holder	VANGUARD GROUP INC ($6.87B)
Institutional Holders Tracked	10
Congressional Trades (recent)	10

Company
Sector	Healthcare
Industry	Healthcare Services
CEO	Samuel N. Hazen
Employees	226,000
Country	US
IPO Date	2011-03-10

Related Companies (Healthcare Services; 8 comparable companies)

Data as of 2026-08-25.

Figures sourced from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC EDGAR) filings and market data. Not personalized investment advice.