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

Shares of CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fifteen ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and twelve have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $89.44.

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on CVS shares. StockNews.com downgraded CVS Health from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Leerink Partnrs reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of CVS Health in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $87.00 price target on shares of CVS Health in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on CVS Health from $93.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Finally, Barclays assumed coverage on CVS Health in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $78.00 price objective on the stock.

CVS Health Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE CVS opened at $67.32 on Friday. CVS Health has a one year low of $64.41 and a one year high of $83.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $84.86 billion, a PE ratio of 10.42, a PEG ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $74.61 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $73.67.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The pharmacy operator reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.01 by $0.11. CVS Health had a return on equity of 15.25% and a net margin of 2.33%. The company had revenue of $93.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $90.58 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.99 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that CVS Health will post 8.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CVS Health Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 22nd will be issued a dividend of $0.665 per share. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.95%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 19th. CVS Health’s payout ratio is presently 41.18%.

Insider Transactions at CVS Health

In other news, EVP Prem S. Shah sold 29,473 shares of CVS Health stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.95, for a total transaction of $2,267,947.35. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 39,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,059,916.75. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.24% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of CVS Health

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CVS. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in CVS Health in the 4th quarter valued at $1,092,040,000. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in CVS Health by 47.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 33,691,698 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $2,660,298,000 after buying an additional 10,837,801 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in CVS Health by 29.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 27,487,238 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $1,919,159,000 after buying an additional 6,194,441 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in CVS Health by 306.6% in the 4th quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 3,046,216 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $240,529,000 after buying an additional 2,297,100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Junto Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in CVS Health in the 4th quarter valued at $111,209,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.66% of the company’s stock.

CVS Health Company Profile

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.