Vest Financial LLC Purchases 7,077 Shares of CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS)

Vest Financial LLC lifted its position in shares of CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS) by 73.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,707 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,077 shares during the quarter. Vest Financial LLC’s holdings in CVS Health were worth $1,132,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CVS. Dodge & Cox raised its holdings in shares of CVS Health by 11.2% during the fourth quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 70,105,899 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $3,147,054,000 after acquiring an additional 7,075,209 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of CVS Health by 26.6% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 61,039,777 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $2,739,927,000 after acquiring an additional 12,819,148 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of CVS Health by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 27,051,540 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $1,211,582,000 after acquiring an additional 689,867 shares during the period. Capital International Investors raised its holdings in shares of CVS Health by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 26,666,401 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $1,196,989,000 after acquiring an additional 1,212,126 shares during the period. Finally, Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of CVS Health by 49.3% during the fourth quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 19,610,579 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $880,319,000 after acquiring an additional 6,475,271 shares during the period. 80.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of CVS Health from $51.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of CVS Health from $74.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, May 5th. Leerink Partners upgraded shares of CVS Health from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $55.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Leerink Partnrs upgraded shares of CVS Health from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of CVS Health in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $74.75.

CVS Health Stock Up 0.8%

CVS Health stock opened at $63.61 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $80.47 billion, a PE ratio of 17.38, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.56. The company’s 50-day moving average is $65.21 and its 200-day moving average is $59.94. CVS Health Co. has a fifty-two week low of $43.56 and a fifty-two week high of $72.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.60.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The pharmacy operator reported $2.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.63. CVS Health had a net margin of 1.24% and a return on equity of 9.11%. The company had revenue of $94.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.07 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.31 EPS. CVS Health’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that CVS Health Co. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

CVS Health Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 22nd were paid a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 22nd. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.18%. CVS Health’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 63.48%.

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.