Hall Laurie J Trustee Reduces Stake in CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS)

Hall Laurie J Trustee lowered its holdings in CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS) by 95.9% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,488 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after selling 57,830 shares during the period. Hall Laurie J Trustee’s holdings in CVS Health were worth $146,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of CVS Health in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,092,040,000. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in shares of CVS Health by 47.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 33,691,698 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $2,660,298,000 after purchasing an additional 10,837,801 shares during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of CVS Health by 573.8% in the 1st quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 5,553,457 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $442,944,000 after purchasing an additional 4,729,207 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in shares of CVS Health by 8.0% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 43,776,874 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $3,491,643,000 after purchasing an additional 3,232,172 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of CVS Health by 306.6% in the 4th quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 3,046,216 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $240,529,000 after purchasing an additional 2,297,100 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.66% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on CVS. Robert W. Baird began coverage on CVS Health in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $61.00 target price for the company. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on CVS Health from $65.00 to $62.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on CVS Health from $64.00 to $63.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Barclays reduced their price objective on CVS Health from $65.00 to $63.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on CVS Health from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $73.24.

CVS Health Stock Performance

NYSE CVS traded up $0.10 on Tuesday, hitting $58.90. 4,169,507 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,361,929. The company has a market capitalization of $73.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.35, a P/E/G ratio of 0.57 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $58.99 and its 200-day moving average price is $65.34. CVS Health Co. has a 52-week low of $52.77 and a 52-week high of $83.25.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The pharmacy operator reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.73 by $0.10. CVS Health had a return on equity of 13.53% and a net margin of 2.03%. The firm had revenue of $91.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $91.41 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.21 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that CVS Health Co. will post 7 earnings per share for the current year.

CVS Health Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 22nd. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.52%. CVS Health’s dividend payout ratio is 46.75%.

About CVS Health

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.