Centaurus Financial Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS)

Centaurus Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS – Get Rating) by 14.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,506 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,097 shares during the quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc.’s holdings in CVS Health were worth $811,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of CVS. Cantor Fitzgerald Investment Advisor L.P lifted its position in shares of CVS Health by 92.9% in the first quarter. Cantor Fitzgerald Investment Advisor L.P now owns 377,875 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $38,245,000 after acquiring an additional 181,966 shares in the last quarter. United Bank lifted its position in shares of CVS Health by 7.2% in the first quarter. United Bank now owns 18,658 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $1,888,000 after acquiring an additional 1,260 shares in the last quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lifted its position in shares of CVS Health by 4,063.8% in the first quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 12,075 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $1,222,000 after acquiring an additional 11,785 shares in the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. lifted its position in shares of CVS Health by 116.9% in the first quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 2,572 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $260,000 after acquiring an additional 1,386 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ergoteles LLC purchased a new position in shares of CVS Health in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,551,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.29% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on CVS. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on CVS Health from $106.00 to $101.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 3rd. Credit Suisse Group lifted their price objective on CVS Health from $117.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 21st. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $115.00 price objective on shares of CVS Health in a research report on Thursday, February 9th. Raymond James reduced their price objective on CVS Health from $115.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 9th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on CVS Health from $130.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $119.65.

CVS Health Trading Down 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE CVS opened at $74.37 on Friday. CVS Health Co. has a twelve month low of $73.91 and a twelve month high of $109.69. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $85.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $93.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $95.50 billion, a PE ratio of 23.84, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.65.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 8th. The pharmacy operator reported $1.99 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.92 by $0.07. CVS Health had a return on equity of 15.75% and a net margin of 1.29%. The business had revenue of $83.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $76.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.98 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that CVS Health Co. will post 8.84 earnings per share for the current year.

CVS Health Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.605 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 20th. This represents a $2.42 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.25%. CVS Health’s payout ratio is 77.56%.

About CVS Health

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CVS Health Corp. is a health solutions company, which engages in the provision of healthcare services. It operates through the following segments: Pharmacy Services, Retail or Long-Term Care, Health Care Benefits, and Corporate and Other. The Pharmacy Services segment focuses on the pharmacy benefit management solutions.