Polaris Capital Management LLC Reduces Position in Elevance Health, Inc. $ELV

Polaris Capital Management LLC lessened its stake in shares of Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV) by 6.1% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 61,141 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,000 shares during the quarter. Polaris Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Elevance Health were worth $23,781,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. CWA Asset Management Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Elevance Health in the 1st quarter valued at $299,000. Focus Partners Wealth boosted its holdings in shares of Elevance Health by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 22,446 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,764,000 after acquiring an additional 982 shares during the last quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Elevance Health by 11.3% in the 2nd quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 8,034 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,125,000 after acquiring an additional 817 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Elevance Health by 88.1% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,390 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,475,000 after acquiring an additional 1,588 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Asio Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Elevance Health by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter. Asio Capital LLC now owns 15,371 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,979,000 after acquiring an additional 1,015 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ELV. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Elevance Health from $400.00 to $330.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 15th. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Elevance Health from $435.00 to $425.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 5th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Elevance Health from $327.00 to $373.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Leerink Partnrs downgraded shares of Elevance Health from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Elevance Health from $428.00 to $316.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 18th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $411.06.

Elevance Health Stock Performance

NYSE:ELV opened at $351.11 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a current ratio of 1.44. The company has a fifty day moving average of $307.98 and a two-hundred day moving average of $361.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $79.06 billion, a PE ratio of 14.94, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 0.59. Elevance Health, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $273.71 and a fifty-two week high of $510.24.

Elevance Health (NYSE:ELV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 17th. The company reported $8.84 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.30 by ($0.46). The company had revenue of $49.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $48.26 billion. Elevance Health had a return on equity of 17.59% and a net margin of 2.83%.The business’s revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $10.12 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Elevance Health, Inc. will post 33.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Elevance Health Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 10th were given a dividend of $1.71 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 10th. This represents a $6.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. Elevance Health’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.11%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Susan D. Devore acquired 1,200 shares of Elevance Health stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 19th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $312.15 per share, for a total transaction of $374,580.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,502 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,093,149.30. The trade was a 52.13% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Gail Boudreaux bought 8,500 shares of Elevance Health stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $286.94 per share, with a total value of $2,438,990.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 151,020 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,333,678.80. The trade was a 5.96% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

About Elevance Health

Elevance Health, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a health benefits company in the United States. The company operates through four segments: Health Benefits, CarelonRx, Carelon Services, and Corporate & Other. It offers a variety of health plans and services to program members; health products; an array of fee-based administrative managed care services; and specialty and other insurance products and services, such as stop loss, dental, vision, life, disability, and supplemental health insurance benefits.