CVS Health Corporation (CVS): Among the Best Performing Large Cap Stocks So Far in 2025

We recently published a list of 11 Best Performing Large Cap Stocks So Far in 2025. In this article, we are going to take a look at where CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) stands against other best performing large cap stocks so far in 2025.

The stock market had a chaotic start to the first quarter of 2025. The uncertain tariff policy, growing fears of a recession, and inflation sent the stock market to the worst quarterly performance since the 2022 bear market. On March 31, ClearBridge Investment released its commentary on the market performance. Portfolio Managers Erica Furfaro and Margaret Vitrano highlighted that the S&P 500 index declined 4.27%, whereas the growth-heavy NASDAQ and Russell 1000 Growth Index fell 10.42% and 9.97%, respectively.

Elaborating more on the quarterly market performance, the portfolio managers noted that the Russell Growth Index underperformed the Russell Value Index by more than 1,200 basis points indicating that while large-cap stocks were impacted, the growth sector took the major hit. Tariffs were only one of the headwinds affecting the performance and the overall backdrop also includes the launch of Chinese LLM DeepSeek which questioned the AI capital expenditure of various large and mega-cap stocks. This capital expenditure bubble infected the performance of other “Magnificent Seven” to an extent that only one of the “Mag Seven” companies could outperform the Russell 1000 Index.

Erica Furfaro and Margaret Vitrano noted that their Large Cap Growth ESG strategy performed better than the benchmark amidst all the uncertainty. Their strategy takes the Russell Growth Index as a benchmark. The managers noted that the strategy revolved around being underweight for the Mag Seven and the IT sector. They also highlighted that balancing the portfolio with strong stocks across IT, communication, and financial services also played a pivotal role in generating more relative returns.

The investment fund also noted moving towards a “moving to the middle” approach, which refers to adjusting their portfolio to be less concentrated in any single sector and more balanced across different types of growth companies. Clearbridge has reduced its overweight position in healthcare and increased exposure to the IT sector, which was previously underweight. The fund believes this recalibration positions the portfolio for an economic slowdown. Lastly, Erica Furfaro and Margaret Vitrano noted that the first quarter witnessed the earnings growth broaden away from the Mag Seven and other large-cap stocks outside the big tech names delivered better earnings. They anticipate that, unless there is a recession, earnings growth from industrial and healthcare companies will begin to catch up with the technology sector in 2025.

Our Methodology

To curate the list of 11 best-performing large-cap stocks so far in 2025, we used the Finviz stock screener and Yahoo Finance. Using the screener we aggregate a list of large-cap stocks that have performed well on a year-to-date. Next, we cross-checked the performance from Yahoo Finance and ranked the stocks in ascending order of their year-to-date performance. We have also added the market capitalization of each stock and the hedge fund sentiment as well, as of Q4 2024. Please note that the data was recorded on May 2, 2025.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).

CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS)

Market Capitalization: $86.599B

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 74

Year-To-Date Performance: 54.66% 

CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) is a leading health solutions company based in the United States. It operates through several segments including the Health Care Benefits, Health Services, and Pharmacy & Consumer Wellness. It serves over 37 million people with health insurance products and operates more than 1,000 walk-in and primary care clinics.

The company recently released its first-quarter results for 2025 and its full-year guidance. CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) posted a revenue of $94.6 billion, reflecting a 7% increase year-over-year. Moreover, the operating income also grew significantly to reach $4.6 billion. The growth was driven by Health Care Benefits which grew 8% year-over-year, with medical membership stable at approximately 27.1 million. Notably, management has announced plans to exit the individual exchange business and focus on other growth areas and also introduced new solutions to improve patient care.

Looking ahead, management has raised EPS guidance for 2025 to a range of $6.00 to $6.20 from $5.75 to $6.00. Patient Capital Opportunity Equity Strategy also noted CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) in its Q1 2025 investor letter. Here’s what the fund said about the company:

Patient Capital Opportunity Equity Strategy stated the following regarding CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:

“CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) went from a top detractor in the fourth quarter to the top contributor in the first quarter. The company faced significant pressure last year from disappointing Medicare Advantage results—an industry-wide challenge. We felt the issues were well understood and expected improvements in pricing for 2026. We took the opportunity to add to the position. Since then, CMS (Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services) has announced 2026 rates at the high end of expectations, supporting a significant earnings power recovery. On a longer-term basis, we continue to think CVS has an attractive combination of assets owning a healthcare benefits business (Aetna), a pharmacy-benefits manager (Caremark), an in-home evaluation business (Signify Health) and in-home primary care business (Oak Street Health) supporting the industry transition to a value-based care model. With new leadership in place, a 4% dividend yield and trough earnings behind us, we see continued attractive prospects ahead.

We added to CVS Health Corp. (CVS) as it hit a decade low, believing that the problems in the Medicare Advantage business would be sorted out. So far this thesis has played out with 2026 rates showing strong improvement.”

Overall, CVS ranks 3rd on our list of best performing large cap stocks so far in 2025. While we acknowledge the potential of CVS to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than CVS but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.