HCA Q3 FY2026: revenue up 3.6%, EPS beats, guidance to upper half
HCA delivered 3.6% revenue growth and a $0.49 EPS beat, but a $400 million uninsured payer-mix hit dragged net income down 3.9%. The forward story now rests on guidance landing in the upper half of $77.00–$79.50 billion revenue and $28.70–$30.50 EPS. Read the payer commentary before the headline EPS: part of the per-share gain is buyback arithmetic, not operating leverage.
1 · Expected vs. Actual
Free preview belowDiluted EPS of $7.27 rose 4.5% even as net income attributable to HCA fell 3.9% to $1.579 billion, because diluted shares dropped to 217.212 million from 236.181 million. Adjusted EPS of $7.22 beat the $6.7292 consensus by $0.49, a gap that flatters a quarter in which Adjusted EBITDA margin slipped to 19.7% from 20.2%.
Revenue rose 3.6% to $19.849 billion from $19.161 billion, but the mix was volume-led: same facility equivalent admissions grew 3.0% while same facility revenue per equivalent admission rose only 0.6%. The American Group was the largest segment at $6.848 billion, ahead of Atlantic at $6.421 billion and National at $5.738 billion.
Full-year guidance is $77.000–$79.500 billion of revenue and $28.70–$30.50 of diluted EPS, and management now expects results in the upper half of both ranges. Those ranges were set on July 14, 2026 and were not lifted, so the update is a positioning statement rather than a number bump.
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Figures on this page come from the company's original SEC filings. The analysis is generated automatically and checked against validation rules, but may still contain errors or omissions. Not investment advice. · Generated 2026-11-03
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