This Under-the-Radar Healthcare Stock Is Poised to Profit
According to CNN, HCA Healthcare (NYSE: HCA) is the largest publicly traded hospital stock in the U.S by market capitalization ($64 billion). It's got scale, with more than 178 acute care hospitals, 121 free-standing surgery centers, 21 endoscopy centers, over 1,360 physicians' clinics, and 48,000 hospital beds across the country. And according to its recent 2021 investor presentation, it's got an average of 25% market share in the markets where it operates -- a remarkable feat in a generally fragmented U.S. hospital landscape.
The company has no comparable publicly traded rivals, due to the fact that most hospital systems are either private or affiliated with a university. Universal Health Services (NYSE: UHS), which operates 360 inpatient facilities (mostly mental health) across the U.S., might be the closest, and it's nowhere near HCA's scale. And while HCA's capital position might appear tenuous, with $30 billion in debt compared with $572 million in equity, investors need to realize that HCA -- like other hospitals -- can expect to be bailed out by the government in a worst-case scenario. (This has already happened once during the pandemic; HCA received $6.2 billion of CARES act funding in 2020, and by the fourth quarter of that fiscal year, the company had already repaid $6.1 billion.)
We already know that HCA has made it this far through COVID in profitable condition. A return to high-profit-margin elective surgeries should superpower its earnings. Here's why I think HCA Healthcare is poised for a breakout in a post-pandemic world.
Source Fool.com
