StockNews.com Upgrades CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) to Hold

StockNews.com upgraded shares of CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Thursday.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on CVS Health from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Edward Jones raised shares of CVS Health from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of CVS Health from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of CVS Health from $73.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Leerink Partners upgraded CVS Health from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $55.00 to $75.00 in a report on Thursday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.28.

CVS Health Stock Performance

Shares of CVS stock opened at $66.35 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $83.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 0.61. CVS Health has a 52 week low of $43.56 and a 52 week high of $80.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.80. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $50.71 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $55.94.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The pharmacy operator reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.30. CVS Health had a net margin of 1.36% and a return on equity of 10.72%. On average, analysts expect that CVS Health will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CVS Health Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 23rd were given a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 23rd. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.01%. CVS Health’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 72.68%.

Institutional Trading of CVS Health

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CVS. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in CVS Health during the fourth quarter worth approximately $839,574,000. Davis Selected Advisers increased its stake in shares of CVS Health by 2,998.1% during the fourth quarter. Davis Selected Advisers now owns 11,385,950 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $511,115,000 after purchasing an additional 11,018,438 shares during the period. Dodge & Cox lifted its holdings in CVS Health by 11.2% during the 4th quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 70,105,899 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $3,147,054,000 after purchasing an additional 7,075,209 shares during the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in CVS Health by 49.3% in 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 buying an additional 6,475,271 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in CVS Health by 30.1% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 18,038,089 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $809,730,000 after buying an additional 4,173,243 shares during the period. 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.