Elevance Health (NYSE:ELV) Upgraded at Wolfe Research

Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Elevance Health (NYSE:ELV) from a peer perform rating to an outperform rating in a research note published on Thursday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have $425.00 price objective on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Guggenheim lifted their price target on Elevance Health from $360.00 to $398.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wall Street Zen cut Elevance Health from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, December 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $320.00 price target (down previously from $332.00) on shares of Elevance Health in a research report on Friday, December 19th. Truist Financial set a $400.00 price target on Elevance Health in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Elevance Health from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $400.85.

Elevance Health Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ELV opened at $372.80 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 1.56 and a quick ratio of 1.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $82.85 billion, a PE ratio of 15.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.51. Elevance Health has a 1-year low of $273.71 and a 1-year high of $458.75. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $338.20 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $328.30.

Elevance Health (NYSE:ELV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 21st. The company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.03 by $1.00. The business had revenue of $50.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.26 billion. Elevance Health had a net margin of 2.84% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $8.37 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Elevance Health will post 33.96 EPS for the current year.

Elevance Health Announces Dividend

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 1.8%. Elevance Health’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.96%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Elevance Health

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ELV. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Elevance Health by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,998,645 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,431,322,000 after purchasing an additional 141,747 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Elevance Health by 4.8% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 6,621,297 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,139,473,000 after buying an additional 303,099 shares during the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Elevance Health by 24.7% in the second quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 5,825,208 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,265,773,000 after buying an additional 1,152,440 shares in the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership lifted its position in shares of Elevance Health by 24.5% during 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 acquiring an additional 901,626 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Eagle Investment Management LLC boosted 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 acquiring an additional 798,457 shares in the last quarter. 89.24% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.