Romano Brothers AND Company Decreases Position in CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS)

Romano Brothers AND Company decreased its holdings in shares of CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS) by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 117,521 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after selling 4,762 shares during the quarter. CVS Health makes up approximately 1.2% of Romano Brothers AND Company’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Romano Brothers AND Company’s holdings in CVS Health were worth $8,124,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in CVS Health by 10.9% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 33,576,388 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $3,128,984,000 after buying an additional 3,311,928 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in CVS Health by 103,371.0% in 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 buying an additional 15,532,533 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in CVS Health in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,425,416,000. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of CVS Health by 31.0% in the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,666,949 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $1,015,591,000 after purchasing an additional 3,237,567 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of CVS Health by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,055,009 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $1,103,488,000 after purchasing an additional 155,280 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on CVS shares. Evercore ISI raised CVS Health from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $81.00 to $83.00 in a report on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $91.00 target price on shares of CVS Health in a report on Friday, August 18th. Edward Jones lowered CVS Health from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on CVS Health from $114.00 to $106.00 in a report on Friday, July 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on CVS Health from $120.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 3rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, CVS Health presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $95.28.

Insider Buying and Selling at CVS Health

In other CVS Health news, SVP James David Clark sold 25,759 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 4,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $351,974.16. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.25% of the stock is owned by insiders.

CVS Health Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CVS traded up $0.59 on Tuesday, hitting $71.29. The company had a trading volume of 3,557,153 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,119,368. 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 Co. has a 52-week low of $64.62 and a 52-week high of $104.83. The company has a market cap of $91.56 billion, a PE ratio of 31.01, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.63. The business has a 50 day moving average of $70.83 and a 200 day moving average of $71.77.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 2nd. The pharmacy operator reported $2.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.09. CVS Health had a return on equity of 15.43% and a net margin of 0.86%. The firm had revenue of $88.92 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.41 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.40 EPS. CVS Health’s quarterly revenue was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that CVS Health Co. will post 8.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CVS Health Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 21st were paid a dividend of $0.605 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 20th. This represents a $2.42 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.39%. CVS Health’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 106.14%.

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.