CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) Given New $79.00 Price Target at Barclays

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) had its price objective decreased by Barclays from $82.00 to $79.00 in a research report released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the pharmacy operator’s stock.

Several other research firms have also commented on CVS. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on CVS Health from $74.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on CVS Health from $82.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Leerink Partners raised CVS Health from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $55.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Wolfe Research lifted their target price on CVS Health from 67.00 to 70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised CVS Health from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $74.75.

CVS Health Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of CVS opened at $63.60 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $80.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.60. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $65.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $59.74. CVS Health has a twelve month low of $43.56 and a twelve month high of $72.51.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The pharmacy operator reported $2.25 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.63. CVS Health had a return on equity of 9.11% and a net margin of 1.24%. The company had revenue of $94.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.07 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.31 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that CVS Health will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

CVS Health Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 22nd were given a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 22nd. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.18%. CVS Health’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 63.48%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CVS Health news, SVP James David Clark sold 7,513 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.35, for a total value of $498,487.55. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,394 shares in the company, valued at $556,941.90. This represents a 47.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.22% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CVS. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of CVS Health in the fourth quarter valued at $839,574,000. Capital World Investors raised its stake in CVS Health by 26.6% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 61,039,777 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $2,739,927,000 after purchasing an additional 12,819,148 shares during the period. Davis Selected Advisers raised its stake in CVS Health by 2,998.1% during the 4th quarter. Davis Selected Advisers now owns 11,385,950 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $511,115,000 after purchasing an additional 11,018,438 shares during the period. Dodge & Cox raised its stake in CVS Health by 11.2% during the 4th quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 70,105,899 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $3,147,054,000 after purchasing an additional 7,075,209 shares during the period. Finally, Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its stake in CVS Health by 49.3% during the 4th quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 19,610,579 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $880,319,000 after purchasing an additional 6,475,271 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.66% of the company’s stock.

About CVS Health

CVS Health Corporation provides health solutions in the United States. It operates through Health Care Benefits, Health Services, and Pharmacy & Consumer Wellness segments. The Health Care Benefits segment offers traditional, voluntary, and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services.