Prospera Financial Services Inc Boosts Stake in CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS)

Prospera Financial Services Inc raised its position in CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS) by 5.8% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 34,555 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,908 shares during the period. Prospera Financial Services Inc’s holdings in CVS Health were worth $2,174,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pzena Investment Management LLC raised 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 worth $764,023,000 after purchasing an additional 7,382,931 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in CVS Health by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 6,963,508 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $555,406,000 after purchasing an additional 389,166 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in CVS Health by 33.5% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,289,788 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $310,722,000 after purchasing an additional 1,327,855 shares during the period. National Pension Service grew its stake in CVS Health by 17.4% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 2,843,402 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $178,793,000 after acquiring an additional 421,416 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can grew its stake in CVS Health by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 2,436,343 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $143,890,000 after acquiring an additional 57,214 shares in the last quarter. 80.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CVS has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of CVS Health from $73.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their target price on shares of CVS Health from $64.00 to $63.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 9th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of CVS Health from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $59.00 to $85.00 in a research note on Friday, October 4th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of CVS Health from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of CVS Health from $75.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $72.28.

CVS Health Price Performance

Shares of CVS opened at $56.83 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $71.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 0.55. CVS Health Co. has a twelve month low of $52.71 and a twelve month high of $83.25. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The company has a 50 day moving average of $59.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $58.61.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pharmacy operator reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $95.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $92.72 billion. CVS Health had a net margin of 1.36% and a return on equity of 10.72%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.21 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that CVS Health Co. will post 5.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CVS Health Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 21st were issued a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 21st. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.68%. CVS Health’s dividend payout ratio is currently 67.51%.

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.