Kennondale Capital Management LLC Acquires New Position in CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS)

Kennondale Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 19,787 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock, valued at approximately $888,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CVS. Davis Selected Advisers boosted its stake in CVS Health by 2,998.1% in the 4th quarter. Davis Selected Advisers now owns 11,385,950 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $511,115,000 after purchasing an additional 11,018,438 shares during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in CVS Health by 49.3% in the 4th quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 19,610,579 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $880,319,000 after purchasing an additional 6,475,271 shares during the period. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in CVS Health by 34.8% in the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 11,897,034 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $748,085,000 after purchasing an additional 3,071,613 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in CVS Health in the 4th quarter worth approximately $116,033,000. Finally, ARGA Investment Management LP boosted its stake in CVS Health by 7,567.7% in the 4th quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP now owns 2,402,901 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $107,866,000 after purchasing an additional 2,371,563 shares during the period. 80.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CVS has been the subject of a number of research reports. Leerink Partners upgraded CVS Health from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $55.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays increased their target price on CVS Health from $71.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on CVS Health from $68.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on CVS Health from $80.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded CVS Health from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $66.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $69.83.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP James David Clark sold 7,513 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.35, for a total value of $498,487.55. Following the completion of 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Michael F. Mahoney purchased 30,000 shares of CVS Health stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $66.70 per share, with a total value of $2,001,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 39,356 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,625,045.20. This trade represents a 320.65 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.24% of the stock is owned by insiders.

CVS Health Stock Performance

Shares of CVS Health stock opened at $66.65 on Tuesday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $58.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.05. The firm has a market cap of $84.03 billion, a PE ratio of 18.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a quick ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. CVS Health Co. has a 52 week low of $43.56 and a 52 week high of $80.75.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The pharmacy operator reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. Equities analysts forecast that CVS Health Co. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

CVS Health Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 23rd were given a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 23rd. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.99%. CVS Health’s payout ratio is 72.68%.

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.