CVS Health (CVS) Upgraded to “Overweight” by Morgan Stanley

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) was upgraded by Morgan Stanley from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report released on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has a $88.00 target price on the pharmacy operator’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 12.17% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Oppenheimer reissued a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 target price on shares of CVS Health in a research report on Monday, October 9th. SunTrust Banks set a $85.00 target price on CVS Health and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 12th. Mizuho set a $90.00 target price on CVS Health and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 24th. Cowen set a $86.00 target price on CVS Health and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, October 29th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC raised CVS Health from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $69.02 to $79.00 in a research report on Friday, November 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. The stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $86.42.

Shares of CVS Health (CVS) traded up $3.32 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $78.45. The stock had a trading volume of 14,241,000 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,230,000. CVS Health has a 12 month low of $66.45 and a 12 month high of $84.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $79,470.00, a P/E ratio of 16.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 6th. The pharmacy operator reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by $0.01. CVS Health had a return on equity of 16.96% and a net margin of 2.77%. The business had revenue of $46.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $46.17 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.64 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. research analysts predict that CVS Health will post 5.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

In other CVS Health news, EVP Lisa Bisaccia sold 29,445 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total transaction of $2,208,375.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 15,556 shares in the company, valued at $1,166,700. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CVS. SNS Financial Group LLC bought a new position in CVS Health in the 1st quarter worth approximately $316,000. Hartland & Co. LLC raised its position in CVS Health by 3.4% in the 1st quarter. Hartland & Co. LLC now owns 18,671 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $1,466,000 after purchasing an additional 619 shares during the last quarter. Anchor Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in CVS Health by 12.5% in the 1st quarter. Anchor Capital Advisors LLC now owns 270,738 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $21,253,000 after purchasing an additional 30,057 shares during the last quarter. Cypress Capital Group raised its position in CVS Health by 192.1% in the 1st quarter. Cypress Capital Group now owns 33,727 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $2,648,000 after purchasing an additional 22,180 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New England Asset Management Inc. raised its position in CVS Health by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. New England Asset Management Inc. now owns 32,624 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $2,561,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.63% of the company’s stock.

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About CVS Health

CVS Health Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, is an integrated pharmacy healthcare company. The Company provides pharmacy care for the senior community through Omnicare, Inc (Omnicare) and Omnicare’s long-term care (LTC) operations, which include distribution of pharmaceuticals, related pharmacy consulting and other ancillary services to chronic care facilities and other care settings.