Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV) Increases Dividend to $1.71 Per Share

Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 23rd,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of 1.71 per share on Tuesday, March 25th. This represents a $6.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This is a boost from Elevance Health’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.63.

Elevance Health has increased its dividend payment by an average of 13.0% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. Elevance Health has a dividend payout ratio of 16.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Elevance Health to earn $34.57 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.52 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 18.9%.

Elevance Health Stock Performance

ELV opened at $401.43 on Friday. Elevance Health has a twelve month low of $362.21 and a twelve month high of $567.26. The stock has a market cap of $93.10 billion, a PE ratio of 14.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 0.84. The business’s 50 day moving average is $386.20 and its 200-day moving average is $463.21. The company has a current ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56.

Elevance Health (NYSE:ELV) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $3.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.80 by $0.04. Elevance Health had a return on equity of 19.56% and a net margin of 3.68%. On average, analysts predict that Elevance Health will post 32.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ELV has been the topic of several research analyst reports. UBS Group lowered their price target on Elevance Health from $605.00 to $555.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of Elevance Health from $520.00 to $480.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Elevance Health from $585.00 to $505.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. TD Cowen dropped their price target on Elevance Health from $589.00 to $484.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Elevance Health from $585.00 to $478.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Elevance Health currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $525.60.

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.