Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. Decreases Holdings in CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS)

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS) by 7.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 60,321 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after selling 4,624 shares during the period. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in CVS Health were worth $4,170,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of CVS. Cantor Fitzgerald Investment Advisor L.P raised its position in shares of CVS Health by 92.9% in the first quarter. Cantor Fitzgerald Investment Advisor L.P now owns 377,875 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $38,245,000 after buying an additional 181,966 shares during the last quarter. United Bank increased its position in CVS Health by 7.2% during the first quarter. United Bank now owns 18,658 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $1,888,000 after purchasing an additional 1,260 shares during the last quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P increased its position in CVS Health by 4,063.8% during the first quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 12,075 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $1,222,000 after purchasing an additional 11,785 shares during the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. increased its position in CVS Health by 116.9% during the first quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 2,572 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $260,000 after purchasing an additional 1,386 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ergoteles LLC acquired a new stake in CVS Health during the first quarter worth about $1,551,000. 75.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on CVS shares. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of CVS Health from $89.00 to $86.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 3rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of CVS Health from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 6th. Raymond James lowered their price objective on shares of CVS Health from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 4th. Wolfe Research raised shares of CVS Health from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 12th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $87.00 price target on shares of CVS Health in a research note on Thursday, September 14th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $92.59.

Insider Buying and Selling at CVS Health

In other news, Director Edward J. Ludwig acquired 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 3rd. The shares were bought at an average cost of $70.47 per share, with a total value of $140,940.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 20,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,453,796.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

CVS Health Stock Performance

Shares of CVS Health stock traded up $0.56 during trading on Friday, reaching $68.81. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 6,447,995 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,437,639. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $69.87 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $70.02. The firm has a market cap of $88.55 billion, a PE ratio of 10.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.58. CVS Health Co. has a fifty-two week low of $64.41 and a fifty-two week high of $104.83. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 1st. The pharmacy operator reported $2.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.13 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $89.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $88.29 billion. CVS Health had a net margin of 2.47% and a return on equity of 15.36%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.09 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that CVS Health Co. will post 8.59 EPS for the current year.

CVS Health Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 20th were paid a $0.605 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 19th. This represents a $2.42 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.52%. CVS Health’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.50%.

CVS Health 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.