CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS) Shares Sold by Marshall Wace LLP

Marshall Wace LLP decreased its holdings in shares of CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS) by 94.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 90,728 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after selling 1,587,180 shares during the quarter. Marshall Wace LLP’s holdings in CVS Health were worth $5,358,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in CVS Health by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 117,696,285 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $9,293,299,000 after acquiring an additional 533,659 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in CVS Health by 8.0% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 43,776,874 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $3,491,643,000 after acquiring an additional 3,232,172 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in CVS Health by 12.5% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 37,917,923 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $3,024,334,000 after acquiring an additional 4,226,225 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in CVS Health by 1.4% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 13,143,822 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $1,048,351,000 after acquiring an additional 184,297 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pzena Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in CVS Health by 132.9% in the second quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 12,936,388 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $764,023,000 after acquiring an additional 7,382,931 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.66% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on CVS shares. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on CVS Health from $65.00 to $62.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on CVS Health from $64.00 to $63.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and set a $62.00 price objective on shares of CVS Health in a research note on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on CVS Health from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on CVS Health from $65.00 to $63.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $72.10.

CVS Health Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE CVS opened at $61.54 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $58.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $61.66. CVS Health Co. has a 52-week low of $52.77 and a 52-week high of $83.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $77.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.82, a PEG ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The pharmacy operator reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.73 by $0.10. CVS Health had a return on equity of 12.72% and a net margin of 1.98%. The firm had revenue of $91.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $91.41 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.21 earnings per share. CVS Health’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that CVS Health Co. will post 6.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CVS Health Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.665 per share. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.32%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, October 21st. CVS Health’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.75%.

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.