Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Sells 16,512 Shares of CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund trimmed its holdings in shares of CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS) by 5.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 307,106 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock after selling 16,512 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in CVS Health were worth $13,786,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp grew its holdings in CVS Health by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 56,527,909 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $3,554,475,000 after acquiring an additional 1,989,066 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in CVS Health by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 26,361,673 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock worth $1,651,997,000 after acquiring an additional 461,569 shares during the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of CVS Health by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 13,135,308 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $825,948,000 after purchasing an additional 198,920 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of CVS Health by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,208,668 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $767,681,000 after purchasing an additional 304,386 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of CVS Health by 34.8% in the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 11,897,034 shares of the pharmacy operator’s stock valued at $748,085,000 after purchasing an additional 3,071,613 shares during the last quarter. 80.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of CVS Health from $68.00 to $58.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of CVS Health from $60.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of CVS Health from $80.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of CVS Health from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Leerink Partners upgraded shares of CVS Health from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $55.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CVS Health presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.00.

CVS Health Stock Performance

CVS opened at $63.65 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $53.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $56.29. CVS Health Co. has a 1-year low of $43.56 and a 1-year high of $80.75. The company has a market cap of $80.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.39, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.61.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The pharmacy operator reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.30. CVS Health had a net margin of 1.24% and a return on equity of 9.11%. On average, analysts expect that CVS Health Co. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CVS Health Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 23rd were issued a $0.665 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 23rd. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.18%. CVS Health’s dividend payout ratio is currently 72.68%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Michael F. Mahoney bought 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $66.70 per share, for a total transaction of $2,001,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 39,356 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,625,045.20. This trade represents a 320.65 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

CVS Health Company Profile

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.