Morningstar Investment Services LLC Trims Position in Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV)

Morningstar Investment Services LLC lessened its stake in Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV - Free Report) by 53.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 13,982 shares of the company's stock after selling 15,763 shares during the quarter. Elevance Health comprises about 1.1% of Morningstar Investment Services LLC's holdings, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Morningstar Investment Services LLC's holdings in Elevance Health were worth $6,082,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Elevance Health by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,485,574 shares of the company's stock worth $7,926,028,000 after acquiring an additional 138,380 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Elevance Health by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,618,062 shares of the company's stock worth $3,917,004,000 after acquiring an additional 464,137 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Elevance Health by 42.5% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 6,355,532 shares of the company's stock worth $2,344,556,000 after acquiring an additional 1,893,947 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Elevance Health by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,963,991 shares of the company's stock worth $1,826,447,000 after acquiring an additional 115,971 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sanders Capital LLC increased its stake in Elevance Health by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 4,686,154 shares of the company's stock worth $1,728,722,000 after acquiring an additional 76,896 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.24% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ELV. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Elevance Health from $500.00 to $440.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $478.00 price objective on shares of Elevance Health in a research note on Wednesday, June 4th. Leerink Partners reaffirmed a "market perform" rating and issued a $310.00 price objective (down from $510.00) on shares of Elevance Health in a research note on Friday. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Elevance Health in a research note on Friday, March 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Elevance Health from $428.00 to $316.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Elevance Health currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $435.93.

Elevance Health Stock Performance

Shares of ELV traded up $2.77 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $279.86. 2,254,932 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,675,254. The business's 50-day moving average price is $371.52 and its 200 day moving average price is $396.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 1.44. Elevance Health, Inc. has a twelve month low of $274.60 and a twelve month high of $567.26. The company has a market capitalization of $63.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.85, a PEG ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 0.60.

Elevance Health (NYSE:ELV - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 17th. The company reported $8.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $9.30 by ($0.46). The company had revenue of $49.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $48.26 billion. Elevance Health had a net margin of 2.83% and a return on equity of 17.59%. The business's revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $10.12 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Elevance Health, Inc. will post 33.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Elevance Health Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 10th will be given a dividend of $1.71 per share. This represents a $6.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 10th. Elevance Health's payout ratio is 29.11%.

Insider Activity at Elevance Health

In other news, CEO Gail Boudreaux purchased 8,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $286.94 per share, with a total value of $2,438,990.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer directly owned 151,020 shares of the company's stock, valued at $43,333,678.80. The trade was a 5.96% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Mark Kaye sold 4,588 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $424.82, for a total value of $1,949,074.16. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 18,977 shares in the company, valued at $8,061,809.14. This trade represents a 19.47% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.29% of the company's stock.

Elevance Health Company Profile

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.