Lake Street Advisors Group LLC Trims Stock Position in CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS)

Lake Street Advisors Group LLC reduced its stake in shares of CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS) by 47.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,737 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after selling 11,723 shares during the quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in CVS Health were worth $881,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CVS. Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of CVS Health by 5.4% in the 2nd quarter. Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC now owns 73,072 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $5,051,000 after buying an additional 3,774 shares during the period. Ethic Inc. grew its position in shares of CVS Health by 149.9% in the 1st quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 111,303 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $8,271,000 after buying an additional 66,770 shares during the period. Perkins Coie Trust Co grew its position in shares of CVS Health by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Perkins Coie Trust Co now owns 46,982 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $3,248,000 after buying an additional 1,081 shares during the period. Machina Capital S.A.S. grew its position in shares of CVS Health by 68.0% in the 2nd quarter. Machina Capital S.A.S. now owns 9,987 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $690,000 after buying an additional 4,044 shares during the period. Finally, Empirical Finance LLC grew its position in CVS Health by 11.5% during the 2nd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 40,747 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $2,817,000 after purchasing an additional 4,196 shares during the last quarter. 75.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on CVS. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of CVS Health from $85.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 1st. Wolfe Research raised shares of CVS Health from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 12th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of CVS Health from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 6th. Evercore ISI raised shares of CVS Health from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $81.00 to $83.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 19th. Finally, Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of CVS Health from $103.00 to $98.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 3rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CVS Health presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $92.59.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Edward J. Ludwig bought 2,000 shares of CVS Health stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 3rd. The stock was bought at an average cost of $70.47 per share, with a total value of $140,940.00. Following the acquisition, 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

CVS Health Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CVS traded up $0.56 during trading on Friday, hitting $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 of $69.87 and a 200-day moving average of $70.02. CVS Health Co. has a 12 month low of $64.41 and a 12 month high of $104.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.64. The firm has a market cap of $88.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.58.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 1st. The pharmacy operator reported $2.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.13 by $0.08. CVS Health had a net margin of 2.47% and a return on equity of 15.36%. The firm had revenue of $89.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $88.29 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.09 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that CVS Health Co. will post 8.59 earnings per share for the current year.

CVS Health Dividend Announcement

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