Benzinga | Oct 21, 2021 12:12PM EDT

HCA Healthcare Earnings Preview

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) is set to give its latest quarterly earnings report on Friday, 2021-10-22. Here's what investors need to know before the announcement.

Analysts estimate that HCA Healthcare will likely report an Earnings Per Share (EPS) of $4.00

HCA Healthcare bulls will hope to hear the company to announce they've not only beaten that estimate, but also to provide positive guidance, or forecasted growth, for the next quarter.

New investors should note that it is sometimes not an earnings beat or miss that most affects the price of a stock, but the guidance (or forecast).

Historical Earnings Performance

Last quarter the company beat on EPS by 38.29%, which was followed by a 0.14% increase in the share price the next day.

Here's a look at HCA Healthcare's past performance and the resulting price change:

Quarter Q2 2021 Q1 2021 Q4 2020 Q3 2020EPS Estimate 3.16 3.32 3.60 2.32EPS Actual 4.37 4.14 4.13 1.92Price Change % 0.14% 0.49% 4.38% -3.6%

Stock Performance

Shares of HCA Healthcare were trading at $250.86 as of October 20. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 84.51%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders are likely bullish going into this earnings release.

If you want to track all upcoming earnings announcements, check out our Earnings Calendar here