Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-three research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and fourteen have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $407.0526.

ELV has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Elevance Health from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Guggenheim raised their target price on Elevance Health from $396.00 to $399.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on Elevance Health from $384.00 to $424.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Barclays raised their target price on Elevance Health from $408.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Elevance Health from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $363.00 to $498.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th.

Institutional Trading of Elevance Health

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Elevance Health by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,998,645 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,431,322,000 after acquiring an additional 141,747 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Elevance Health by 25.2% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,289,976 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,906,051,000 after acquiring an additional 1,668,679 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Elevance Health by 27.5% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,446,185 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,610,261,000 after acquiring an additional 1,607,274 shares during the period. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership increased its position in Elevance Health by 10.0% in the 4th quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 5,032,751 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,764,231,000 after acquiring an additional 455,946 shares during the period. Finally, First Eagle Investment Management LLC increased its position in Elevance Health by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 4,022,874 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,410,219,000 after acquiring an additional 24,271 shares during the period. 89.24% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Elevance Health Stock Down 3.6%

Shares of Elevance Health stock opened at $388.33 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $345.97 and its 200-day simple moving average is $339.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $84.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.52, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.67. Elevance Health has a twelve month low of $273.71 and a twelve month high of $408.00.

Elevance Health (NYSE:ELV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The company reported $12.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.74 by $1.84. The business had revenue of $49.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $48.21 billion. Elevance Health had a return on equity of 15.58% and a net margin of 2.62%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $11.97 EPS. Elevance Health has set its FY 2026 guidance at 19.850- EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Elevance Health will post 26.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Elevance Health Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 10th will be given a $1.72 dividend. This represents a $6.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 10th. Elevance Health’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.26%.

About Elevance Health

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.