HCA Holdings Inc. — a big hospital operator in Las Vegas — said Monday its fourth-quarter net income soared from a year earlier, and it announced plans to pay a special dividend.
Nashville-based HCA also said its core performance measurements, like patient volume and admissions, remained strong. In Las Vegas, the company runs the Sunrise Health system, including Sunrise, MountainView, Southern Hills and Sunrise Children's hospitals.
The company earned $1.94 billion, or $4.25 per share, compared with $283 million, or 65 cents per share, in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Results for the most recent quarter include a pretax gain of $3.13 per share on the acquisition of a controlling stake in an investment and pretax gains on facility sales of 18 cents per share.
The gain did not reflect an increase in cash profits generated by the company, but rather was related to an accounting exercise.
The $3.13-per-share gain accounted for $1.522 billion of the quarterly profit and the vast majority of the profit. The gain was recognized because HCA assigned new, higher values to its investment in a Colorado hospital system called HealthONE. The investment was revalued after HCA acquired a controlling stake in the system.
Revenue rose to $8.43 billion from $7.74 billion a year earlier.
Also Monday, HCA said its board approved a special cash dividend of $2 per share to be paid to on Feb. 29 to shareholders of record as of Feb 16.
Separately, the owner of North Vista Hospital in North Las Vegas — IASIS Heathcare LLC, of Franklin, Tenn. — said net revenue for its fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 31 rose 1.5 percent to $623.7 million. Net earnings of $3.6 million were down from $14 million in the year-ago period.
Fellow hospital operators Universal Health Services Inc., owner of the Valley Health System hospitals in Las Vegas, and Dignity Health, formerly Catholic Healthcare West, haven't yet reported quarterly earnings.