Lbp Am Sa Acquires Shares of 145,705 CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS)

Lbp Am Sa bought a new position in shares of CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 145,705 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock, valued at approximately $6,541,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of CVS. Davis Selected Advisers increased its stake in shares of CVS Health by 2,998.1% during the fourth quarter. Davis Selected Advisers now owns 11,385,950 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $511,115,000 after purchasing an additional 11,018,438 shares in the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of CVS Health by 49.3% during the fourth quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 19,610,579 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $880,319,000 after purchasing an additional 6,475,271 shares in the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of CVS Health by 34.8% during the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 11,897,034 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $748,085,000 after purchasing an additional 3,071,613 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of CVS Health during the fourth quarter worth about $116,033,000. Finally, ARGA Investment Management LP increased its stake in shares of CVS Health by 7,567.7% during the fourth quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP now owns 2,402,901 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $107,866,000 after purchasing an additional 2,371,563 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.66% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at CVS Health

In other CVS Health news, SVP James David Clark sold 7,513 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.35, for a total value of $498,487.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,394 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $556,941.90. This trade represents a 47.23 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Michael F. Mahoney acquired 30,000 shares of CVS Health stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $66.70 per share, for a total transaction of $2,001,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 39,356 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,625,045.20. This represents a 320.65 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on CVS shares. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of CVS Health from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of CVS Health from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of CVS Health from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $66.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Edward Jones raised shares of CVS Health from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of CVS Health from $80.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, CVS Health presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $69.83.

CVS Health Stock Performance

NYSE:CVS opened at $65.63 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $82.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.93, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $58.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $57.00. CVS Health Co. has a fifty-two week low of $43.56 and a fifty-two week high of $80.75.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The pharmacy operator reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.30. CVS Health had a net margin of 1.24% and a return on equity of 9.11%. Equities research analysts forecast that CVS Health Co. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

CVS Health Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 23rd were given a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 23rd. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.05%. CVS Health’s dividend payout ratio is presently 72.68%.

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.