Cantor Fitzgerald Reiterates Overweight Rating for CVS Health (NYSE:CVS)

Cantor Fitzgerald reissued their overweight rating on shares of CVS Health (NYSE:CVS - Free Report) in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. Cantor Fitzgerald currently has a $87.00 price target on the pharmacy operator's stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on CVS. SVB Leerink initiated coverage on shares of CVS Health in a research report on Monday, February 26th. They set an outperform rating and a $88.00 price target for the company. HSBC initiated coverage on shares of CVS Health in a research report on Friday, December 22nd. They set a buy rating and a $94.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com cut shares of CVS Health from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Leerink Partnrs reaffirmed an outperform rating on shares of CVS Health in a research report on Monday, February 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of CVS Health from $93.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $89.44.

CVS Health Trading Down 3.1 %

Shares of CVS stock traded down $2.25 on Wednesday, hitting $71.12. 8,362,128 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,071,836. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.86. CVS Health has a one year low of $64.41 and a one year high of $83.25. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $76.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $73.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $89.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.23, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.52.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The pharmacy operator reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.01 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $93.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $90.58 billion. CVS Health had a net margin of 2.33% and a return on equity of 15.25%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.99 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that CVS Health will post 8.33 EPS for the current year.

CVS Health Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Monday, April 22nd will be paid a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 19th. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.74%. CVS Health's payout ratio is 41.18%.

Insider Buying and Selling at CVS Health

In other CVS Health news, EVP Prem S. Shah sold 29,473 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.95, for a total transaction of $2,267,947.35. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 39,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,059,916.75. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.25% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of CVS Health

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CVS. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of CVS Health by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 117,696,285 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $9,293,299,000 after acquiring an additional 533,659 shares during the period. Capital World Investors grew its stake in shares of CVS Health by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,544,702 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $3,201,410,000 after acquiring an additional 119,631 shares during the period. Capital International Investors grew its stake in shares of CVS Health by 47.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 33,691,698 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $2,660,298,000 after acquiring an additional 10,837,801 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of CVS Health by 10.9% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 33,576,388 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $3,128,984,000 after acquiring an additional 3,311,928 shares during the period. Finally, Dodge & Cox grew its stake in shares of CVS Health by 13.8% in the fourth quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 30,413,390 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $2,401,441,000 after acquiring an additional 3,690,408 shares during the period. 80.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.