Aptus Capital Advisors LLC Has $759,000 Position in CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS)

Aptus Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS) by 7.7% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 12,078 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after buying an additional 865 shares during the period. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in CVS Health were worth $759,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its position in CVS Health by 132.9% in the 2nd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 12,936,388 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $764,023,000 after buying an additional 7,382,931 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its stake in CVS Health by 12.5% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 37,917,923 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $3,024,334,000 after acquiring an additional 4,226,225 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in shares of CVS Health by 8.0% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 43,776,874 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $3,491,643,000 after acquiring an additional 3,232,172 shares in the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC raised its position in shares of CVS Health by 5,864.2% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 1,730,343 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $108,804,000 after purchasing an additional 1,701,331 shares during the period. Finally, State of Michigan Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of CVS Health by 402.5% in the 2nd quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 2,005,677 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $118,455,000 after purchasing an additional 1,606,500 shares in the last quarter. 80.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on CVS shares. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of CVS Health from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. TD Cowen raised shares of CVS Health from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $59.00 to $85.00 in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of CVS Health from $61.00 to $60.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 4th. StockNews.com downgraded CVS Health from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on CVS Health from $75.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $73.00.

CVS Health Stock Performance

Shares of CVS opened at $55.11 on Friday. CVS Health Co. has a 1 year low of $52.77 and a 1 year high of $83.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $59.41 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $58.79. The firm has a market cap of $69.35 billion, a PE ratio of 13.99, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 0.55.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The pharmacy operator reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.08 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $95.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $92.72 billion. CVS Health had a net margin of 1.36% and a return on equity of 10.72%. The company’s revenue was up 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.21 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that CVS Health Co. will post 5.44 EPS for the current year.

CVS Health Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 21st were issued a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 21st. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.83%. CVS Health’s payout ratio is 67.51%.

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.