Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV) has received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the twenty-four research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $396.2105.

ELV has been the topic of several analyst reports. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Elevance Health in a research report on Wednesday, November 26th. Truist Financial set a $400.00 target price on Elevance Health in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Weiss Ratings cut Elevance Health from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Monday, December 29th. Zacks Research raised Elevance Health from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, Guggenheim boosted their price objective on shares of Elevance Health from $360.00 to $398.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th.

Elevance Health Stock Up 1.1%

Shares of ELV opened at $354.30 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $334.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $328.47. The company has a quick ratio of 1.56, a current ratio of 1.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. The company has a market capitalization of $78.74 billion, a PE ratio of 14.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.51. Elevance Health has a 52-week low of $273.71 and a 52-week high of $458.75.

Elevance Health (NYSE:ELV) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 21st. The company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.03 by $1.00. The company had revenue of $50.09 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.26 billion. Elevance Health had a net margin of 2.84% and a return on equity of 16.17%. Elevance Health’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $8.37 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Elevance Health will post 33.96 EPS for the current year.

Elevance Health Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 19th. Investors of record on Friday, December 5th were paid a dividend of $1.71 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 5th. This represents a $6.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. Elevance Health’s dividend payout ratio is presently 27.96%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Elevance Health

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ELV. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Elevance Health in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,148,379,000. Sanders Capital LLC raised its position in Elevance Health by 24.7% in the second quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 5,825,208 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,265,773,000 after acquiring an additional 1,152,440 shares in the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership increased its stake in Elevance Health by 24.5% in the 3rd quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 4,576,805 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,478,857,000 after purchasing an additional 901,626 shares in the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Elevance Health by 25.0% during the 3rd quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 3,998,603 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,292,029,000 after buying an additional 798,457 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. acquired a new stake in Elevance Health during the 2nd quarter valued at $293,141,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.24% of the company’s stock.

Elevance Health Company Profile

Elevance Health, Inc (NYSE: ELV) is a large U.S.-based health benefits company that provides a broad range of health insurance products and related services. Headquartered in Indianapolis, the company rebranded from Anthem, Inc to Elevance Health in 2022 while continuing to operate consumer-facing health plans under established state and national brands. Gail Boudreaux serves as chief executive officer and president, leading the company’s strategic focus on integrated health care and benefit delivery.

Elevance’s core activities include offering medical and specialty health plans for individuals, employers and government programs, including Medicare and Medicaid managed-care products.