HCA vs. ALC, THC, UHS, EHC, ENSG, ACHC, SEM, USPH, BKD, and WOOF
Should you be buying HCA Healthcare stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of HCA Healthcare include Alcon (ALC), Tenet Healthcare (THC), Universal Health Services (UHS), Encompass Health (EHC), The Ensign Group (ENSG), Acadia Healthcare (ACHC), Select Medical (SEM), U.S. Physical Therapy (USPH), Brookdale Senior Living (BKD), and Petco Health and Wellness (WOOF). These companies are all part of the "health care facilities" industry.
HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) and Alcon (NYSE:ALC) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, community ranking, valuation and risk.
In the previous week, HCA Healthcare had 20 more articles in the media than Alcon. MarketBeat recorded 23 mentions for HCA Healthcare and 3 mentions for Alcon. HCA Healthcare's average media sentiment score of 0.81 beat Alcon's score of -0.35 indicating that HCA Healthcare is being referred to more favorably in the media.
HCA Healthcare has a beta of 1.66, meaning that its stock price is 66% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alcon has a beta of 0.92, meaning that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.
HCA Healthcare received 1021 more outperform votes than Alcon when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 77.32% of users gave HCA Healthcare an outperform vote while only 61.72% of users gave Alcon an outperform vote.
Alcon has a net margin of 10.96% compared to HCA Healthcare's net margin of 8.20%. HCA Healthcare's return on equity of 674.49% beat Alcon's return on equity.
HCA Healthcare presently has a consensus target price of $325.59, suggesting a potential downside of 4.17%. Alcon has a consensus target price of $94.71, suggesting a potential upside of 6.26%. Given Alcon's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Alcon is more favorable than HCA Healthcare.
HCA Healthcare has higher revenue and earnings than Alcon. HCA Healthcare is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Alcon, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
62.7% of HCA Healthcare shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 53.9% of Alcon shares are held by institutional investors. 1.6% of HCA Healthcare shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of Alcon shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Summary
HCA Healthcare beats Alcon on 15 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding HCA and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
HCA Healthcare Competitors List
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