First Manhattan CO. LLC. Trims Holdings in CVS Health Corporation $CVS

Key Points

• First Manhattan CO. LLC. reduced its stake in CVS Health by 25%, now holding roughly 39,815 shares valued at approximately $2.70 million.
• Major hedge funds have been adjusting their positions in CVS Health, with Vanguard Group increasing its holdings by 0.8% to over $8 billion in value.
• Analysts have varying price targets for CVS, with UBS raising their target to $79 and Bernstein lowering it to $72, reflecting mixed market sentiment.

First Manhattan CO. LLC. reduced its stake in shares of CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS - Free Report) by 25.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 39,815 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock after selling 13,240 shares during the period. First Manhattan CO. LLC.'s holdings in CVS Health were worth $2,697,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CVS. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of CVS Health by 9.6% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,321,493 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $328,554,000 after buying an additional 639,325 shares during the period. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of CVS Health during the fourth quarter worth $647,000. Bridgefront Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of CVS Health during the fourth quarter worth $523,000. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of CVS Health during the fourth quarter worth $1,134,000. Finally, Bontempo Ohly Capital Mgmt LLC raised its holdings in shares of CVS Health by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Bontempo Ohly Capital Mgmt LLC now owns 52,595 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $2,361,000 after purchasing an additional 932 shares during the last quarter. 80.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Baird R W raised shares of CVS Health from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, August 14th. Bernstein Bank cut their price objective on shares of CVS Health from $78.00 to $72.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Cowen reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of CVS Health in a report on Monday, August 4th. Robert W. Baird raised shares of CVS Health from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $71.00 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, August 14th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on shares of CVS Health from $72.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $77.89.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CVS Health news, Director Anne A. Finucane sold 7,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owned 22,156 shares in the company, valued at $1,573,519.12. The trade was a 25.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 1.22% of the stock is owned by insiders.

CVS Health Price Performance

CVS traded up $0.07 on Friday, reaching $73.76. 5,074,859 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,804,935. The stock has a market cap of $93.56 billion, a PE ratio of 20.60, a P/E/G ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 0.62. CVS Health Corporation has a twelve month low of $43.56 and a twelve month high of $74.53. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $66.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $66.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

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

CVS Health Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 22nd were issued a $0.665 dividend. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 22nd. CVS Health's payout ratio is presently 74.30%.

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.