CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS) has earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the fifteen brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and twelve have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $97.00.

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Edward Jones lowered CVS Health from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 17th. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of CVS Health from $120.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of CVS Health from $114.00 to $106.00 in a research report on Friday, July 7th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of CVS Health from $89.00 to $86.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of CVS Health from $120.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 3rd.

CVS Health Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of CVS stock opened at $65.52 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $84.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.74, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.63. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $70.90 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $72.71. CVS Health has a 1 year low of $64.62 and a 1 year high of $104.83. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 2nd. The pharmacy operator reported $2.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $88.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.41 billion. CVS Health had a net margin of 0.86% and a return on equity of 15.43%. CVS Health’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.40 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that CVS Health will post 8.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CVS Health Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 21st were issued a dividend of $0.605 per share. This represents a $2.42 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.69%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 20th. CVS Health’s payout ratio is presently 106.14%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CVS Health news, SVP James David Clark sold 25,759 shares of CVS Health stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.92, for a total transaction of $1,929,864.28. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $351,974.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of CVS Health

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp increased its position in CVS Health by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 55,877,387 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $3,862,804,000 after buying an additional 855,269 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in CVS Health by 10.9% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 33,576,388 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $3,128,984,000 after purchasing an additional 3,311,928 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in CVS Health by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 23,325,287 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $1,607,886,000 after purchasing an additional 363,384 shares in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in CVS Health by 103,371.0% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 15,547,559 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $1,448,877,000 after purchasing an additional 15,532,533 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in CVS Health during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,425,416,000. 75.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

CVS Health Company Profile

CVS Health Corporation provides health services in the United States. It operates through Health Care Benefits, Pharmacy Services, and Retail/LTC segments. The Health Care Benefits segment offers traditional, voluntary, and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services. It serves employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, health care providers, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups, and expatriates.