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CVS Health (CVS) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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CVS Health (CVS - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $70.24, moving -0.4% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.12% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.2%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.29%.

Heading into today, shares of the drugstore chain and pharmacy benefits manager had lost 3.83% over the past month, lagging the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 0.73% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.09% in that time.

CVS Health will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, CVS Health is projected to report earnings of $2.13 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 1.91%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $87.97 billion, up 8.39% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $8.61 per share and revenue of $351.8 billion. These totals would mark changes of -0.92% and +9.1%, respectively, from last year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for CVS Health. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.13% lower. CVS Health is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, CVS Health currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 8.2. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 6.34.

Also, we should mention that CVS has a PEG ratio of 1.34. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Retail - Pharmacies and Drug Stores industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.24 as of yesterday's close.

The Retail - Pharmacies and Drug Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 193, putting it in the bottom 24% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

To follow CVS in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.


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