HCA stock up 5% after beating earnings expectations and raising guidance

Shares of HCA Healthcare Inc. rose 5% in premarket trade Tuesday after the company reported first-quarter earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street's expectations, while also raising its full-year guidance. Profit for the latest quarter was $1.039 billion, or $2.97 a share, compared with $1.144 billion, or $3.18 a share in the year-earlier quarter. The FactSet consensus for EPS was $2.32 a share. Revenue rose to $12.517 billion from $11.423 billion one year ago, beating the FactSet consensus of $12.34 billion. HCA noted that $86 million of the quarter's revenue was due to finalizing an arbitration with a payer related to out-of-network claims. HCA's same-facility admissions increased 0.9% to 500,036 in the latest quarter, while same-facility equivalent admissions increased 1.8% to 844,061. Revenue per equivalent admission rose 4.4% to $14,043. Emergency room visits fell 2.3% to 2.2 million compared with the year-earlier period and same-facility inpatient surgeries declined 0.3% to 130,837. Same-facility outpatient surgeries increased 1.3% to 229,874. HCA raised its full-year revenue guidance to $51.5 billion from $50.5 billion and EPS to $10.40 from $9.80 per share. Shares of HCA have gained 0.8% so far this year, while the S&P 500 has gained 17.4%.

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