Choate Investment Advisors Sells 5,269 Shares of CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS)

Choate Investment Advisors trimmed its position in CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS) by 26.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 14,722 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after selling 5,269 shares during the quarter. Choate Investment Advisors’ holdings in CVS Health were worth $661,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of CVS. TD Private Client Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of CVS Health by 28.7% during the 3rd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 46,938 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $2,951,000 after acquiring an additional 10,465 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in CVS Health by 4.8% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,434,476 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $90,200,000 after purchasing an additional 66,244 shares in the last quarter. Sompo Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in CVS Health by 8.4% in the 3rd quarter. Sompo Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 134,523 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $8,459,000 after buying an additional 10,453 shares during the last quarter. Hall Laurie J Trustee lifted its position in CVS Health by 25,484.4% during the 4th quarter. Hall Laurie J Trustee now owns 11,513 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $517,000 after buying an additional 11,468 shares in the last quarter. Finally, B&D White Capital Company LLC bought a new position in shares of CVS Health in the 4th quarter valued at about $417,000. 80.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on CVS shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on CVS Health from $80.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Leerink Partners raised shares of CVS Health from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $55.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of CVS Health from $72.00 to $64.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of CVS Health from $60.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of CVS Health from $71.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $69.83.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP James David Clark sold 7,513 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.35, for a total value of $498,487.55. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,394 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $556,941.90. This trade represents a 47.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Michael F. Mahoney bought 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $66.70 per share, with a total value of $2,001,000.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 39,356 shares of the company’s stock, 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 company insiders.

CVS Health Stock Down 0.2 %

NYSE CVS opened at $65.63 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The company has a market cap of $82.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.93, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a 50 day moving average of $58.47 and a 200-day moving average of $56.98. CVS Health Co. has a 1-year low of $43.56 and a 1-year high of $80.75.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The pharmacy operator reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.30. CVS Health had a return on equity of 9.11% and a net margin of 1.24%. On average, equities research analysts expect that CVS Health Co. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CVS Health Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.665 per share. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.05%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 23rd. CVS Health’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 72.68%.

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.