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If You Invested $1000 in HCA Healthcare a Decade Ago, This is How Much It'd Be Worth Now

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For most investors, how much a stock's price changes over time is important. This factor can impact your investment portfolio as well as help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.

The fear of missing out, or FOMO, also plays a factor in investing, especially with particular tech giants, as well as popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in HCA Healthcare (HCA - Free Report) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to HCA for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

HCA Healthcare's Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at HCA Healthcare's main business drivers.

HCA Healthcare is the largest non-governmental operator of acute care hospitals in the United States. Headquartered in Nashville, TN, it operates hospitals and related health care entities. At the end of 2024, the company operated 190 hospitals and approximately 2,400 ambulatory sites of care, including surgery centers, freestanding emergency rooms, urgent care centers and physician clinics, in 20 states and the United Kingdom.

It also operates outpatient health care facilities, which include freestanding ambulatory surgery centers (“ASCs”), freestanding emergency care facilities, urgent care facilities, walk-in clinics, diagnostic and imaging centers, comprehensive rehabilitation and physical therapy centers, radiation and oncology therapy centers, physician practices and various other facilities.

The company operates in two geographically organized groups, the National and American Groups. HCA generated revenues of $70.6 billion in 2024.

The National Group (accounted for 27.8% of the overall 2024 revenues) had 55 hospitals located in states like Alaska, California, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia. The American Group (34.8%) has 65 hospitals in states like Colorado, Central Kansas, Louisiana and Texas.

Its Atlantic Group (32.8%) included 62 hospitals located in Florida, Georgia, Northern Kansas, Missouri and South Carolina. The company also operates seven hospitals in England that are included in the Corporate and Other group (4.6%).

The company's 180 general, acute care hospitals with 49,114 licensed beds provide a wide range of services to cater to different medical specialties, such as internal medicine, general surgery, cardiology, oncology, neurosurgery, orthopedics and obstetrics as well as diagnostic and emergency services. The general, acute care hospitals also provide outpatient services such as outpatient surgery, laboratory, radiology, respiratory therapy, cardiology and physical therapy.

Its six behavioral hospitals with 602 licensed beds offer child, adolescent and adult psychiatric care. It also provides adolescent and adult alcohol and drug abuse treatment and counseling.

Bottom Line

Putting together a successful investment portfolio takes a combination of research, patience, and a little bit of risk. For HCA Healthcare, if you bought shares a decade ago, you're likely feeling really good about your investment today.

According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in May 2015 would be worth $4,746.37, or a 374.64% gain, as of May 6, 2025. Investors should keep in mind that this return excludes dividends but includes price appreciation.

In comparison, the S&P 500 gained 170.42% and the price of gold went up 168.35% over the same time frame.

Going forward, analysts are expecting more upside for HCA.

HCA Healthcare beat 1Q25 earnings estimates on strong patient volumes. Its revenues remain on an uptick on the back of growth in admissions and inpatient surgeries. The resumption of deferred elective procedures is likely to sustain the trend. Revenues are anticipated to be between $72.8 billion and $75.8 billion in 2025, the midpoint of which indicates a 5.2% rise from the 2024 figure. Multiple buyouts aided in increasing patient volumes and added hospitals to the portfolio. HCA Healthcare resorts to prudent capital deployment via share buybacks and dividend payments. Its shares have outperformed the industry in the past year. However, a debt-heavy balance sheet induces a rise in interest expenses. The company had a long-term debt of $44.58 billion. Also, escalating expenses may strain margins. As such, the stock warrants a cautious stance.

Over the past four weeks, shares have rallied 5.99%, and there have been 7 higher earnings estimate revisions in the past two months for fiscal 2025 compared to none lower. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.

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