Altfest L J & Co. Inc. Makes New $543,000 Investment in CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS)

Altfest L J & Co. Inc. purchased a new position in shares of CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 6,882 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock, valued at approximately $543,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of CVS. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC grew its stake in CVS Health by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC now owns 30,511 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $2,409,000 after acquiring an additional 705 shares in the last quarter. Cornell Pochily Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of CVS Health during the 4th quarter valued at about $223,000. Procyon Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of CVS Health by 17.8% in the fourth quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 3,689 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $291,000 after purchasing an additional 557 shares during the last quarter. IFG Advisory LLC increased its holdings in shares of CVS Health by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. IFG Advisory LLC now owns 49,380 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $3,899,000 after buying an additional 2,030 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RNC Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of CVS Health by 14.7% during the 4th quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC now owns 652,562 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $51,526,000 after buying an additional 83,680 shares in the last quarter. 80.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on CVS shares. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on CVS Health from $86.00 to $84.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on CVS Health from $102.00 to $99.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 11th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $87.00 price target on shares of CVS Health in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of CVS Health from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, HSBC began coverage on CVS Health in a research note on Friday, December 22nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $94.00 target price on the stock. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $90.21.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Prem S. Shah sold 29,473 shares of CVS Health stock in a transaction on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.95, for a total value of $2,267,947.35. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 39,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,059,916.75. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

CVS Health Stock Up 0.8 %

CVS traded up $0.61 during trading on Thursday, hitting $80.04. 5,501,371 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,233,035. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. CVS Health Co. has a 12-month low of $64.41 and a 12-month high of $83.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $100.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.44, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 0.51. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $75.61 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $73.42.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 7th. The pharmacy operator reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.01 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $93.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $90.58 billion. CVS Health had a return on equity of 15.25% and a net margin of 2.33%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.99 earnings per share. Analysts predict that CVS Health Co. will post 8.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CVS Health Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 22nd will be paid a $0.665 dividend. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 19th. CVS Health’s payout ratio is 41.18%.

CVS Health 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.