Mufg Securities Americas Inc. Invests $834,000 in CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS)

Mufg Securities Americas Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 18,576 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock, valued at approximately $834,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of CVS. Brookstone Capital Management increased its position in shares of CVS Health by 10.9% during the fourth quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 69,420 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $3,116,000 after acquiring an additional 6,831 shares during the last quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of CVS Health by 17.2% during the fourth quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC now owns 8,723 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $392,000 after acquiring an additional 1,283 shares during the last quarter. Oak Thistle LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CVS Health during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $837,000. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its position in shares of CVS Health by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 24,646 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $1,106,000 after acquiring an additional 1,359 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. increased its position in CVS Health by 16.6% in the fourth quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 9,101 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $409,000 after buying an additional 1,296 shares during the last quarter. 80.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on CVS. Edward Jones raised CVS Health from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Leerink Partners raised CVS Health from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $55.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on CVS Health from $72.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on CVS Health from $74.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on CVS Health from $67.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Three research 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 MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $74.94.

CVS Health Price Performance

NYSE:CVS opened at $60.03 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $75.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.40, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.60. CVS Health Co. has a 52-week low of $43.56 and a 52-week high of $72.51. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $66.71 and a 200 day moving average of $59.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.81.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The pharmacy operator reported $2.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.63. The company had revenue of $94.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.07 billion. CVS Health had a return on equity of 9.11% and a net margin of 1.24%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.31 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that CVS Health Co. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CVS Health Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.665 per share. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.43%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 22nd. CVS Health’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 63.48%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CVS Health news, SVP James David Clark sold 7,513 shares of CVS Health stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.35, for a total transaction of $498,487.55. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,394 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $556,941.90. The trade was a 47.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Michael F. Mahoney purchased 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $66.70 per share, with a total value of $2,001,000.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 39,356 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,625,045.20. The trade was a 320.65% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.22% of the company’s stock.

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.