Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV) Short Interest Down 23.7% in February

Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV) saw a large decline in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 2,480,000 shares, a decline of 23.7% from the February 13th total of 3,250,000 shares. Approximately 1.1% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,710,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.5 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Elevance Health news, CAO Ronald W. Penczek sold 443 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $415.13, for a total transaction of $183,902.59. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 1,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $766,745.11. This represents a 19.34 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Charles Morgan Kendrick, Jr. sold 3,504 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $396.30, for a total transaction of $1,388,635.20. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 10,116 shares in the company, valued at $4,008,970.80. This represents a 25.73 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.35% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Dunhill Financial LLC lifted its position in Elevance Health by 57.8% in the third quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 71 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Tobam lifted its position in Elevance Health by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. Tobam now owns 434 shares of the company’s stock worth $160,000 after buying an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Elevance Health by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 882 shares of the company’s stock worth $325,000 after buying an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Austin Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Elevance Health by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Austin Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,996 shares of the company’s stock worth $736,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quent Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Elevance Health by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 1,488 shares of the company’s stock valued at $549,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. 89.24% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on ELV. StockNews.com cut shares of Elevance Health from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $485.00 price objective on shares of Elevance Health in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Stephens cut shares of Elevance Health from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $520.00 to $440.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Elevance Health from $483.00 to $478.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of Elevance Health from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $519.81.

Elevance Health Price Performance

ELV traded up $5.20 during trading on Monday, reaching $426.14. 280,091 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,294,171. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a current ratio of 1.45. Elevance Health has a 12-month low of $362.21 and a 12-month high of $567.26. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $395.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $428.79. The company has a market cap of $96.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.63, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 0.86.

Elevance Health (NYSE:ELV) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $3.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.80 by $0.04. Elevance Health had a net margin of 3.38% and a return on equity of 18.28%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Elevance Health will post 33.96 EPS for the current year.

Elevance Health Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 25th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $1.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This is a positive change from Elevance Health’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.63. This represents a $6.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.61%. Elevance Health’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.71%.

Elevance Health Company Profile

Elevance Health, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a health benefits company in the United States. The company operates through four segments: Health Benefits, CarelonRx, Carelon Services, and Corporate & Other. It offers a variety of health plans and services to program members; health products; an array of fee-based administrative managed care services; and specialty and other insurance products and services, such as stop loss, dental, vision, life, disability, and supplemental health insurance benefits.