Short Interest in CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS) Rises By 5.0%

CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS) was the target of a large increase in short interest during the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 21,850,000 shares, an increase of 5.0% from the October 15th total of 20,800,000 shares. Approximately 1.7% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 10,800,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.0 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of CVS Health by 3.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 56,527,909 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $3,554,475,000 after acquiring an additional 1,989,066 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its position in shares of CVS Health by 8.0% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 43,776,874 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $3,491,643,000 after purchasing an additional 3,232,172 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its position in shares of CVS Health by 12.5% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 37,917,923 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $3,024,334,000 after purchasing an additional 4,226,225 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in CVS Health by 1.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 26,361,673 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $1,651,997,000 after buying an additional 461,569 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in CVS Health by 1.4% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 13,143,822 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $1,048,351,000 after buying an additional 184,297 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.66% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on CVS shares. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of CVS Health from $68.00 to $58.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Barclays cut their target price on shares of CVS Health from $75.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of CVS Health from $73.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of CVS Health from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of CVS Health from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $72.44.

CVS Health Stock Performance

NYSE:CVS opened at $53.19 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.80. CVS Health has a fifty-two week low of $52.71 and a fifty-two week high of $83.25. The company has a market cap of $66.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.50, a PEG ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 0.55. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $59.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $58.60.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pharmacy operator reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $95.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $92.72 billion. CVS Health had a return on equity of 10.72% and a net margin of 1.36%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.21 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that CVS Health will post 5.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CVS Health Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 21st were issued a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 21st. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.00%. CVS Health’s payout ratio is currently 67.51%.

About CVS Health

CVS Health Corporation provides health solutions in the United States. It operates through Health Care Benefits, Health Services, and Pharmacy & Consumer Wellness segments. The Health Care Benefits segment offers traditional, voluntary, and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services.