HCA Healthcare, Inc. · HCA · FY2025 Q2 · Calendar Q3 2025

HCA raises guidance as demand and payer mix support growth

The supplied analysis supports a constructive near-term operating thesis: strong demand, improved payer mix, outpatient growth, and recovery in hurricane-affected markets helped HCA raise guidance. The evidence is balanced by policy, reimbursement, volume, and labor uncertainties that could affect durability.

Reported Before market openNYSEHealthcare $93.57B market cap
100quality score

Earnings scorecard

Reported versus consensus
Reported EPS $6.84 Consensus $6.29
EPS surprise +8.7% Reported versus consensus
Reported revenue $18.61B Consensus $18.50B
Revenue surprise +0.6% Reported versus consensus

Market reaction

prior-close to event-session close
Stock move -2.1% Event window
SPY move +0.4% Same window
Abnormal move -2.5% Stock minus SPY
Volume 2.2× Versus trailing sessions
Subsequent drift +21.1% Up to 20 sessions
HCASPY benchmark

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Transcript intelligence

What changed

Compared with the prior quarter's maintained guidance and broad volume-growth narrative, HCA's current analysis shows a raised outlook, stronger emphasis on cardiac, obstetrics, neonatal, and outpatient demand, and new resiliency efforts addressing policy and reimbursement risks.

Guidance delta

Management raised 2025 guidance to revenue of $74–76 billion, adjusted EBITDA of $14.7–15.3 billion, and EPS of $25.50–27, versus the prior quarter's maintained guidance.

Key takeaways

  • Q2 adjusted EPS grew 24% and adjusted EBITDA margin improved 30 basis points.
  • Growth was supported by cardiac, obstetrics, neonatal, and outpatient surgery demand; outpatient surgery revenue grew 8%.
  • Management cited new state supplemental payments and recovery in hurricane-affected markets as contributors to the guidance raise.
  • Resiliency programs are intended to address potential premium-tax-credit and policy changes.
  • Capital plans remain substantial, including $5 billion of planned 2025 capex and a $5.5 billion facility pipeline.

Management priorities

  • Continue the $5 billion annual capex program and bring $5.5 billion of projects online through 2027.
  • Expand outpatient and inpatient facilities in high-growth markets.
  • Advance digital transformation, automation, and shared-service efficiencies.
  • Build resiliency programs to mitigate policy and reimbursement risks.
  • Pursue market-share gains through network integrity and patient-stay initiatives.

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Earnings History

Estimate Beat Miss Match
HCA EPS earnings history estimate and actual scatter chart 9 reported fiscal quarters and 4 future estimate-only quarters. Q4 '23 estimate $5.06 Q4 '23 actual $5.93, beat Q1 '24 estimate $5.01 Q1 '24 actual $5.93, beat Q2 '24 estimate $4.85 Q2 '24 actual $5.53, beat Q3 '24 estimate $4.97 Q3 '24 actual $5.03, beat Q2 '25 estimate $6.29 Q2 '25 actual $6.84, beat Q3 '25 estimate $5.79 Q3 '25 actual $6.96, beat Q4 '25 estimate $7.46 Q4 '25 actual $8.01, beat Q1 '26 estimate $7.12 Q1 '26 actual $7.15, beat Q2 '26 estimate $7.56 Q2 '26 actual $7.59, beat Q3 '26 estimate $6.67 Q4 '26 estimate $8.05 Q1 '27 estimate $7.80 Q2 '27 estimate $8.04
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Analyst Consensus ?

ConsensusBuy45 ratings
Bullish2862.2%
Neutral1533.3%
Bearish24.5%

Analyst 52W Price Targets

$441.08Current
$224Low
$399.23Average
$579High

Latest persisted target per named analyst; persisted current price from FN2's market snapshot as of Oct 7, 2026. Not an FN2 forecast.

Firm-level rating actions

FMP grade actions identify the grading firm, not a named analyst.

FirmRatingPrior ratingActionDate
Leerink Partners Outperform OutperformMaintainSep 18, 2026
RBC Capital Outperform OutperformMaintainSep 8, 2026
JP Morgan Neutral NeutralMaintainAug 20, 2026
Wells Fargo Equal Weight Equal WeightMaintainAug 3, 2026
Mizuho Outperform OutperformMaintainJul 28, 2026
Show 40 more rating actions

Named analyst price targets

Upside is calculated against the persisted current price $441.08. FMP does not supply a rating on these named-analyst rows.

FirmAnalyst52W targetPrice when postedUpsideDate
BMO CapitalAnalyst unavailable$495$438.12 +12.2%Sep 22, 2026
Goldman SachsAnalyst unavailable$485$389.62 +10.0%Jul 28, 2026
UBSAnalyst unavailable$579$390.7 +31.3%Jul 27, 2026
Deutsche BankAnalyst unavailable$476$387.41 +7.9%Jul 27, 2026
Morgan StanleyAnalyst unavailable$380$388.48 -13.8%Jul 27, 2026
See 115 more

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Company context

Snapshot as of publication

HCA Healthcare, Inc., operating through its subsidiaries, delivers a comprehensive array of healthcare services throughout the United States. The organization manages a network of general and acute care hospitals that provide a full spectrum of medical and surgical care, encompassing inpatient services, intensive care, cardiac treatment, diagnostic procedures, and emergency services. These hospitals additionally offer a broad range of outpatient care, such as ambulatory surgery, laboratory testing, radiology, respiratory therapy, cardiology, and physical therapy. Beyond its hospital infrastructure, HCA Healthcare operates numerous specialized outpatient facilities.…

Historical context

All HCA earnings

Healthcare peers this season

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MDT Medtronic plc FY2027 Q1 · Calendar Q3 2026 +4.3% +1.5% Medtronic raises FY27 outlook as growth broadens across platforms

Latest beats and misses

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Sources

  1. Earnings call transcript and parsed analysis · 2026-05-11T10:29:34.698584+00:00
  2. FN2 earnings calendar · 2026-07-26T00:37:55.686058+00:00
  3. Polygon adjusted daily market bars · 2026-10-07T16:50:43.802541+00:00
  4. Financial Modeling Prep analyst price-target consensus and quote snapshot · 2026-10-07T16:50:43.799810+00:00

Methodology

Reported and consensus figures come from FN2's earnings event records. Market reaction and volume are calculated from daily adjusted bars around the event; abnormal move subtracts the SPY move over the same window.

Analyst target low, average, and high values are derived at request time from each named analyst's latest persisted FMP target. The current-price marker comes from FN2's persisted market snapshot. They are sell-side estimates, not an FN2 valuation or recommendation.

Transcript intelligence is a structured synthesis of the current and prior earnings-call analyses. Missing values stay missing and are never estimated.

By FN2 Research · Updated · As of 2026-10-07. For educational purposes only; not investment advice.