CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) Rating Lowered to "Hold" at Zacks Research

Key Points

• CVS Health has been downgraded by Zacks Research from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating, reflecting a change in market sentiment towards the stock.
• Despite the downgrade, several firms, including Morgan Stanley and UBS Group, have issued positive ratings and increased price targets for CVS, indicating a mixed outlook among analysts.
• CVS Health reported a net revenue of $98.92 billion in its last quarterly earnings, surpassing analysts' expectations, and has a current average target price of $77.89.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS - Get Free Report) was downgraded by investment analysts at Zacks Research from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report issued on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of CVS Health from $82.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Bernstein Bank reduced their price target on CVS Health from $78.00 to $72.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on CVS Health from $74.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, June 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on CVS Health from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $78.00 price target on shares of CVS Health in a research note on Tuesday, August 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $77.89.

CVS Health Trading Up 0.4%

CVS stock traded up $0.33 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $75.00. The stock had a trading volume of 6,400,711 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,903,319. The firm has a market cap of $95.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.95, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.62. CVS Health has a twelve month low of $43.56 and a twelve month high of $75.55. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $67.11 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $66.30.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The pharmacy operator reported $1.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.35. CVS Health had a net margin of 1.17% and a return on equity of 10.51%. The company had revenue of $98.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.87 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.83 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. CVS Health has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.300-6.400 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that CVS Health will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CVS Health news, Director Anne A. Finucane sold 7,500 shares of CVS Health stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.02, for a total value of $532,650.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 22,156 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,573,519.12. The trade was a 25.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.22% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CVS Health

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in CVS Health by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 120,399,131 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $8,305,132,000 after purchasing an additional 2,063,737 shares during the period. Dodge & Cox lifted its holdings in shares of CVS Health by 4.8% in the first quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 73,459,122 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock valued at $4,976,856,000 after purchasing an additional 3,353,223 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of CVS Health by 1.4% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 58,788,585 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $4,055,237,000 after buying an additional 800,414 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in CVS Health by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 28,635,233 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock valued at $1,966,083,000 after buying an additional 675,824 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its position in CVS Health by 15.3% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 23,532,479 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock valued at $1,623,270,000 after buying an additional 3,118,626 shares during the last quarter. 80.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.