Northwest Bancshares Inc. Decreases Stock Position in CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS)

Northwest Bancshares Inc. reduced its position in shares of CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS) by 32.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,111 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after selling 2,496 shares during the period. Northwest Bancshares Inc.’s holdings in CVS Health were worth $321,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in CVS Health by 9.7% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 410,001 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $25,781,000 after purchasing an additional 36,132 shares during the last quarter. Cullinan Associates Inc. raised its position in shares of CVS Health by 43.8% in the 3rd quarter. Cullinan Associates Inc. now owns 122,682 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $7,125,000 after purchasing an additional 37,395 shares in the last quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C purchased a new position in shares of CVS Health during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $57,584,000. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of CVS Health by 5.7% in the third quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 448,323 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $28,191,000 after buying an additional 24,285 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CX Institutional raised its holdings in CVS Health by 698.0% in the third quarter. CX Institutional now owns 74,609 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $4,691,000 after acquiring an additional 65,259 shares in the last quarter. 80.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on CVS shares. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of CVS Health from $73.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Barclays lowered their price objective on CVS Health from $75.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $62.00 target price on shares of CVS Health in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Evercore ISI upped their price target on CVS Health from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of CVS Health from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $60.00 to $66.00 in a report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $72.28.

CVS Health Stock Performance

Shares of CVS stock opened at $56.83 on Thursday. CVS Health Co. has a 12-month low of $52.71 and a 12-month high of $83.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The firm has a market capitalization of $71.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 0.55. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $59.18 and a 200 day simple moving average of $58.61.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pharmacy operator reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $95.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $92.72 billion. CVS Health had a return on equity of 10.72% and a net margin of 1.36%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.21 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that CVS Health Co. will post 5.48 EPS for the current year.

CVS Health Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 21st were issued a $0.665 dividend. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.68%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 21st. CVS Health’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 67.51%.

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.