Investors Purchase High Volume of Call Options on CVS Health (NYSE:CVS)

CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS - Get Free Report) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders acquired 96,851 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 64% compared to the typical volume of 59,025 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CVS. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its stake in CVS Health by 9.0% in the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 209,881 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $12,396,000 after acquiring an additional 17,281 shares during the last quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of CVS Health by 9,318.2% in the second quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 9,324 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $551,000 after purchasing an additional 9,225 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in CVS Health by 12.6% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 15,618 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock valued at $942,000 after purchasing an additional 1,753 shares in the last quarter. Lombard Odier Asset Management Europe Ltd lifted its position in CVS Health by 29.9% during the second quarter. Lombard Odier Asset Management Europe Ltd now owns 30,099 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock valued at $1,778,000 after purchasing an additional 6,927 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can grew its stake in CVS Health by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 2,436,343 shares of the pharmacy operator's stock worth $143,890,000 after buying an additional 57,214 shares in the last quarter. 80.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on CVS. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of CVS Health from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of CVS Health from $75.00 to $71.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on CVS Health from $68.00 to $58.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $62.00 target price on shares of CVS Health in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, StockNews.com cut CVS Health from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $68.71.

CVS Health Stock Down 0.2 %

CVS traded down $0.10 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $53.05. 10,663,843 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,009,922. CVS Health has a one year low of $43.56 and a one year high of $80.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.80. The company's fifty day moving average price is $51.26 and its 200 day moving average price is $56.26. The company has a market cap of $66.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.59.

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The pharmacy operator reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.08 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $95.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $92.72 billion. CVS Health had a net margin of 1.36% and a return on equity of 10.72%. The firm's revenue was up 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.21 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that CVS Health will post 5.22 EPS for the current year.

CVS Health Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 23rd will be paid a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 23rd. This represents a $2.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.01%. CVS Health's payout ratio is 67.51%.

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.

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