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HCA Holdings Shares Plunged: What You Need to Know

By Anders Bylund | More Articles
July 25, 2011 | Comments (0)

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Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of health-care service provider HCA Holdings (NYSE: HCA  ) could use some TLC today after falling as much as 20% on nearly ten times the average trading volume.

So what: The company released second-quarter results this morning, and investors didn't like 'em one bit. Earnings fell 36% year-over-year on 4% higher revenue.

Now what: Management pinned the dramatically thinner margins on an unfavorable shift from high-value surgical procedures to "less acute medical cases." Hooray for healthy humans, of course, but it's bad news for hospital operators. Industry peers Health Management Associates (NYSE: HMA  ) , Universal Health Services (NYSE: UHS  ) , and Tenet Healthcare (NYSE: THC  ) all dropped as much as 5% on HCA's news. All three will report earnings over the next week, letting us know how broad this sudden no-surgery trend really is. Add them all to your Foolish watchlist and keep your eyes open.

Interested in more info on HCA Holdings? Add it to your watchlist.

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Fool contributor Anders Bylund holds no position in any of the companies discussed here. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool is investors writing for investors.


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Related Tickers

5/25/2012 4:02 PM
HCA $26.02 Down -0.08 -0.31%
HCA Holdings, Inc. CAPS Rating: ***
UHS $39.07 Up +0.10 +0.26%
Universal Health S… CAPS Rating: ***
THC $4.75 Down +0.00 +0.00%
Tenet Healthcare C… CAPS Rating: **
HMA $6.58 Down -0.02 -0.30%
Health Management… CAPS Rating: ***

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