West Tower Group LLC Makes New $302,000 Investment in CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS)

West Tower Group LLC acquired a new stake in CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 4,800 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock, valued at approximately $302,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of CVS Health by 132.9% during 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 in the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC raised its holdings in shares of CVS Health by 5,864.2% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 1,730,343 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $108,804,000 after acquiring an additional 1,701,331 shares in the last quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of CVS Health by 402.5% during the second quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 2,005,677 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $118,455,000 after acquiring an additional 1,606,500 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of CVS Health during the first quarter valued at approximately $110,816,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of CVS Health by 33.5% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,289,788 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $310,722,000 after acquiring an additional 1,327,855 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.66% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on CVS shares. StockNews.com downgraded CVS Health from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on CVS Health from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Barclays decreased 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. TD Cowen increased their price objective on CVS Health from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on CVS Health from $68.00 to $58.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.33.

CVS Health Trading Up 3.6 %

CVS Health stock opened at $60.10 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.59. CVS Health Co. has a one year low of $52.71 and a one year high of $83.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $75.63 billion, a PE ratio of 15.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.55. The business’s fifty day moving average is $59.25 and its 200 day moving average is $58.67.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The pharmacy operator reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.08 by $0.01. CVS Health had a return on equity of 10.72% and a net margin of 1.36%. The company had revenue of $95.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $92.72 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.21 earnings per share. CVS Health’s revenue was up 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that CVS Health Co. will post 5.43 EPS for the current year.

CVS Health Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Monday, October 21st were given a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 21st. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.43%. CVS Health’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 67.51%.

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.