Elevance Health (NYSE:ELV) Raised to Strong-Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Elevance Health (NYSE:ELV) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday.

ELV has been the subject of a number of other reports. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Elevance Health from $602.00 to $604.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Elevance Health from $585.00 to $605.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Truist Financial reissued a buy rating and set a $600.00 price target (up from $580.00) on shares of Elevance Health in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Elevance Health from $575.00 to $585.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an overweight rating and set a $580.00 target price on shares of Elevance Health in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Buy and a consensus target price of $587.42.

Elevance Health Stock Up 0.4 %

ELV stock opened at $547.74 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $522.84 and a 200 day moving average of $497.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $127.31 billion, a PE ratio of 20.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Elevance Health has a 52 week low of $412.00 and a 52 week high of $550.34.

Elevance Health (NYSE:ELV) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The company reported $10.64 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.54 by $0.10. Elevance Health had a net margin of 3.64% and a return on equity of 20.62%. The company had revenue of $42.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $42.49 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $9.46 EPS. Elevance Health’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Elevance Health will post 37.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Elevance Health Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 25th. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th will be issued a $1.63 dividend. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 10th. Elevance Health’s payout ratio is presently 24.64%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Elevance Health news, EVP Felicia F. Norwood sold 14,111 shares of Elevance Health stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $533.74, for a total transaction of $7,531,605.14. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 31,460 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,791,460.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.29% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Elevance Health

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Burney Co. boosted its stake in Elevance Health by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Burney Co. now owns 8,910 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,620,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc boosted its position in shares of Elevance Health by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 19,898 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,318,000 after acquiring an additional 765 shares during the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Elevance Health during the 1st quarter valued at about $833,000. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Elevance Health during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,954,000. Finally, Strategic Wealth Partners Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Elevance Health by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Strategic Wealth Partners Ltd. now owns 6,840 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,547,000 after acquiring an additional 172 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.24% of the company’s stock.

About Elevance Health

Elevance Health, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a health benefits company in the United States. The company operates through four segments: Health Benefits, CarelonRx, Carelon Services, and Corporate & Other. It offers a variety of health plans and services to program members; health products; an array of fee-based administrative managed care services; and specialty and other insurance products and services, such as stop loss, dental, vision, life, disability, and supplemental health insurance benefits.