(Reuters) -HCA Healthcare missed Wall Street estimates for quarterly profit on Friday and forecast up to a $300-million hit in the fourth quarter due to hurricane disruptions, causing its shares to fall 8% in premarket trading.
The hospital operator experienced a loss of revenue in the third quarter owing to the impact of Hurricane Helene on some of its facilities in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina.
Some hospitals delayed procedures because of hurricanes in the past weeks, as well as tight supplies of IV fluid after flooding at a large U.S. facility.
HCA said it expects expenses and loss of revenue of between $200 million and $300 million in the fourth quarter, due to a hit to its facilities from Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
The company had closed five hospitals in Florida earlier this month, in preparation for Hurricane Milton, and transferred about 400 patients from hospitals throughout the state to mandatory evacuation zones.
The hospital operator expects some impact from Hurricane Helene on its North Carolina facilities even next year, but said that would be manageable. It forecast 2025 profit to be near, or slightly above the upper end of its long-term growth range.
HCA posted quarterly revenue of $17.49 billion, missing an estimate of $17.54 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
The largest for-profit hospital operator in the United States reported third-quarter profit of $4.88 per share. Analysts on average had expected a profit of $4.97 per share.
(Reporting by Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
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