CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) Research Coverage Started at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler assumed coverage on shares of CVS Health (NYSE:CVS – Get Rating) in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, The Fly reports. The brokerage issued an overweight rating on the pharmacy operator’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on CVS. Bank of America decreased their target price on CVS Health from $111.00 to $104.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 31st. 92 Resources restated a maintains rating on shares of CVS Health in a report on Monday, May 8th. TheStreet cut CVS Health from a b rating to a c rating in a report on Wednesday, May 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on CVS Health from $130.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Thursday, February 9th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on CVS Health from $100.00 to $90.00 in a report on Thursday, May 4th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $110.00.

CVS Health Trading Down 1.7 %

CVS Health stock opened at $67.67 on Thursday. CVS Health has a one year low of $66.61 and a one year high of $107.26. The business’s fifty day moving average is $72.74 and its 200 day moving average is $84.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $86.75 billion, a PE ratio of 22.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.61.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 3rd. The pharmacy operator reported $2.20 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.07 by $0.13. CVS Health had a return on equity of 15.75% and a net margin of 1.20%. The firm had revenue of $85.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $80.67 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.22 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that CVS Health will post 8.63 EPS for the current year.

CVS Health Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 21st were paid a dividend of $0.605 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 20th. This represents a $2.42 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.58%. CVS Health’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 79.87%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CVS Health news, CEO Karen S. Lynch bought 14,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 3rd. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $69.75 per share, for a total transaction of $976,500.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 431,392 shares in the company, valued at $30,089,592. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.25% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of CVS Health

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in CVS Health by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 115,934,841 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $11,056,706,000 after purchasing an additional 1,726,512 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of CVS Health by 10.9% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 33,576,388 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $3,128,984,000 after acquiring an additional 3,311,928 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of CVS Health by 103,371.0% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 15,547,559 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $1,448,877,000 after acquiring an additional 15,532,533 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of CVS Health during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,425,416,000. Finally, FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of CVS Health by 31.0% during the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,666,949 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $1,015,591,000 after acquiring an additional 3,237,567 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.29% of the company’s stock.

CVS Health Company Profile

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CVS Health Corp. is a health solutions company, which engages in the provision of healthcare services. It operates through the following segments: Pharmacy Services, Retail or Long-Term Care, Health Care Benefits, and Corporate and Other. The Pharmacy Services segment focuses on the pharmacy benefit management solutions.