HCA Healthcare stock up 15% on Friday: this is why

HCA Healthcare Inc (NYSE: HCA) stock is up nearly 15% on Friday after the healthcare facilities operator reported better-than-expected profit for its fiscal Q2, despite the labour and inflationary pressures.

HCA Healthcare Q2 financial highlights

• Net income printed at $1.16 billion versus year-ago figure of $1.45 billion
• Per-share earnings of $3.90 were lower than $4.36 in Q2 of previous year
• Revenue went up 2.70% on a year-over-year basis to $14.82 billion
• FactSet consensus was $3.70 of EPS on $14.73 billion in revenue
• At $6.79 billion, costs related to salaries and benefits jumped 6.4%

CEO Hazen’s remarks

Facility sales and debt retirement resulted in 11 cents and 20 cents of per-share loss, respectively. In the earnings press release, CEO Sam Hazen said:

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Many aspects of our business were positive considering the challenges we faced with the labour market and other inflationary pressures on costs. Our teams executed well as they have in the past through other difficult environments.

Other notable figures

Other notable figures in the earnings report include a 1.2% decline in admissions, 2.3% decline in inpatient surgeries, and 1.4% decline in outpatient surgeries.

Emergency room visits, though, were up 7.3% on a same-facility basis, contributing to a 3.5% increase in revenue per equivalent admission. HCA also declared 56 cents a share of quarterly cash dividend on Friday.

The Nashville, Tennessee-headquartered company ended the quarter with $858 million in cash and cash equivalents. Despite the rally following the stock market news, shares are still down close to 25% versus their year-to-date high.