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

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CVS Health (CVS - Free Report) closed at $65.10 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.14% move from the prior day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.07% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.21%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.13%.

Heading into today, shares of the drugstore chain and pharmacy benefits manager had lost 0.82% over the past month, lagging the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 2.42% and the S&P 500's gain of 5.36% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from CVS as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be February 20, 2019. In that report, analysts expect CVS to post earnings of $2.07 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 7.81%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $53.71 billion, up 11% from the year-ago period.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for CVS. 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. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 2.14% lower. CVS currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note CVS's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 8.8. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 10.75.

We can also see that CVS currently has a PEG ratio of 0.88. 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. CVS's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.03 as of yesterday's close.

The Retail - Pharmacies and Drug Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 107, which puts it in the top 42% 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.

Make sure to utilize Zacks. Com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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