CVS Health (CVS) closed at $79.12 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.38% move from the prior day. The stock outperformed the S&P 500, which registered a daily gain of 0.32%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.6%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.22%.
Shares of the drugstore chain and pharmacy benefits manager have depreciated by 0.55% over the course of the past month, underperforming the Medical sector's gain of 1.67%, and the S&P 500's gain of 4.7%.
Market participants will be closely following the financial results of CVS Health in its upcoming release. On that day, CVS Health is projected to report earnings of $0.99 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 16.81%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $103.03 billion, up 5.44% from the year-ago period.
Looking at the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $6.65 per share and revenue of $399.4 billion. These totals would mark changes of +22.69% and +7.13%, respectively, from last year.
It's also important for investors to be aware of any recent modifications to analyst estimates for CVS Health. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the business health and profitability.
Our research reveals that these estimate alterations are directly linked with the stock price performance in the near future. 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, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed a 0.48% increase. As of now, CVS Health holds a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
In terms of valuation, CVS Health is presently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 11.73. This denotes a discount relative to the industry average Forward P/E of 15.51.
Also, we should mention that CVS has a PEG ratio of 0.77. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. As of the close of trade yesterday, the Medical Services industry held an average PEG ratio of 1.71.
The Medical Services industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 153, finds itself in the bottom 39% echelons of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the vigor of our specific industry groups by computing the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks incorporated in the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Don't forget to use Zacks.com to keep track of all these stock-moving metrics, and others, in the upcoming trading sessions.
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CVS Health Corporation (CVS): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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