McKesson (NYSE:MCK) Hits New 1-Year High – Should You Buy?

Shares of McKesson Co. (NYSE:MCK) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $730.43 and last traded at $728.20, with a volume of 94070 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $726.40.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on MCK shares. Cfra Research downgraded McKesson from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on McKesson from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of McKesson from $642.00 to $745.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of McKesson from $708.00 to $805.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of McKesson from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $686.69.

McKesson Stock Performance

The stock’s 50 day moving average is $687.71 and its 200 day moving average is $631.12. The company has a market capitalization of $89.56 billion, a PE ratio of 32.79, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.53.

McKesson (NYSE:MCK) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $10.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $9.83 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $90.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94 billion. McKesson had a negative return on equity of 181.26% and a net margin of 0.82%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 18.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $6.18 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that McKesson Co. will post 32.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

McKesson Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 2nd. McKesson’s payout ratio is presently 10.99%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Napoleon B. Rutledge, Jr. sold 543 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $726.51, for a total transaction of $394,494.93. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 1,972 shares in the company, valued at $1,432,677.72. The trade was a 21.59% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Brian S. Tyler sold 8,961 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $597.99, for a total transaction of $5,358,588.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 60,664 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,276,465.36. The trade was a 12.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.11% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On McKesson

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MCK. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of McKesson by 75,632.7% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,393,152 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,610,567,000 after acquiring an additional 2,389,992 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in McKesson in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,200,361,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of McKesson in the 1st quarter worth $475,235,000. Farallon Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of McKesson during the 4th quarter valued at $348,044,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of McKesson by 4,559.6% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 427,703 shares of the company’s stock worth $287,840,000 after acquiring an additional 418,524 shares during the last quarter. 85.07% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

McKesson Company Profile

McKesson Corporation provides healthcare services in the United States and internationally. It operates through four segments: U.S. Pharmaceutical, Prescription Technology Solutions (RxTS), Medical-Surgical Solutions, and International. The U.S. Pharmaceutical segment distributes branded, generic, specialty, biosimilar and over-the-counter pharmaceutical drugs, and other healthcare-related products.