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How to buy CVS Health Corporation stock | 58.78
Own CVS Health Corporation stock in just a few minutes.
CVS Health Corporation is a healthcare plans business based in the US. CVS Health Corporation shares (CVS) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars. CVS Health Corporation employs 290,000 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$263 billion.
How to buy shares in CVS Health Corporation
- Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
- Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
- Search for CVS Health Corporation. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: CVS. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
- Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until CVS Health Corporation reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
- Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$58.78, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of CVS Health Corporation, depending on your broker.
- Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of CVS Health Corporation. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.
What's in this guide?
- CVS shares summary
- Compare share dealing platforms
- Is CVS stock a buy or sell?
- Stock performance over time
- Can I short CVS shares?
- Is CVS suitable for ethical investing?
- Are CVS shares over-valued?
- CVS Health Corporation's financials
- How volatile are CVS shares?
- Does CVS Health Corporation pay a dividend?
- Have CVS shares ever split?
- Other common questions
How has coronavirus impacted CVS Health Corporation's share price?
Since the stock market crash in March caused by coronavirus, CVS Health Corporation's share price has had significant negative movement.
Its last market close was USD$58.78, which is 17.80% down on its pre-crash value of USD$71.51 and 12.95% up on the lowest point reached during the March crash when the shares fell as low as USD$52.04.
If you had bought USD$1,000 worth of CVS Health Corporation shares at the start of February 2020, those shares would have been worth USD$793.16 at the bottom of the March crash, and if you held on to them, then as of the last market close they'd be worth USD$878.17.
CVS Health Corporation share price
Use our graph to track the performance of CVS stocks over time.CVS Health Corporation shares at a glance
Information last updated 2020-10-20.
| Latest market close | USD$58.78 |
|---|---|
| 52-week range | USD$52.04 - USD$76.44 |
| 50-day moving average | USD$58.8111 |
| 200-day moving average | USD$62.3399 |
| Wall St. target price | USD$78.76 |
| PE ratio | 9.4738 |
| Dividend yield | USD$2 (3.4%) |
| Earnings per share (TTM) | USD$6.293 |
Buy CVS Health Corporation shares from these brokerages
Compare special offers, low fees and a wide range of types of investments among top trading platforms.The value of any investment can go up or down depending on news, trends and market conditions. We are not investment advisers, so do your own due diligence to understand the risks before you invest.
Is it a good time to buy CVS Health Corporation stock?
The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.
This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.
CVS Health Corporation price performance over time
Historical closes compared with the close of $58.78 from 2020-10-19
| 1 week (2020-11-19) | -11.02% |
|---|---|
| 1 month (2020-10-29) | 5.10% |
| 3 months (2020-08-28) | -7.01% |
| 6 months (2020-05-29) | -10.36% |
| 1 year (2019-11-29) | -21.91% |
|---|---|
| 2 years (2018-11-29) | -26.53% |
| 3 years (2017-11-29) | -19.92% |
| 5 years (2015-11-27) | -37.88% |
Is CVS Health Corporation under- or over-valued?
Valuing CVS Health Corporation stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of CVS Health Corporation's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.
CVS Health Corporation's P/E ratio
CVS Health Corporation's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 9x. In other words, CVS Health Corporation shares trade at around 9x recent earnings.
That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.
CVS Health Corporation's PEG ratio
CVS Health Corporation's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 0.9932. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.
The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into CVS Health Corporation's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.
CVS Health Corporation's EBITDA
CVS Health Corporation's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$18.3 billion.
The EBITDA is a measure of a CVS Health Corporation's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.
CVS Health Corporation financials
| Revenue TTM | USD$263 billion |
|---|---|
| Operating margin TTM | 5.28% |
| Gross profit TTM | USD$44.5 billion |
| Return on assets TTM | 3.82% |
| Return on equity TTM | 12.73% |
| Profit margin | 3.14% |
| Book value | $52.044 |
| Market capitalisation | USD$77.8 billion |
TTM: trailing 12 months
Shorting CVS Health Corporation shares
There are currently 19.9 million CVS Health Corporation shares held short by investors – that's known as CVS Health Corporation's "short interest". This figure is 3.4% up from 19.3 million last month.
There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting CVS Health Corporation shares can be evaluated.
CVS Health Corporation's "short interest ratio" (SIR)
CVS Health Corporation's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of CVS Health Corporation shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of CVS Health Corporation shares traded daily (recently around 9.5 million). CVS Health Corporation's SIR currently stands at 2.1. In other words for every 100,000 CVS Health Corporation shares traded daily on the market, roughly 2100 shares are currently held short.
However CVS Health Corporation's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of CVS Health Corporation shares, or, against the total number of tradable CVS Health Corporation shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case CVS Health Corporation's short interest could be expressed as 0.02% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 CVS Health Corporation shares in existence, roughly 20 shares are currently held short) or 0.0152% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable CVS Health Corporation shares, roughly 15 shares are currently held short).
Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against CVS Health Corporation.
Find out more about how you can short CVS Health Corporation stock.
CVS Health Corporation's environmental, social and governance track record
Environmental, social and governance (known as ESG) criteria are a set of three factors used to measure the sustainability and social impact of companies like CVS Health Corporation.
When it comes to ESG scores, lower is better, and lower scores are generally associated with lower risk for would-be investors.
CVS Health Corporation's total ESG risk score
Total ESG risk: 18.73
Socially conscious investors use ESG scores to screen how an investment aligns with their worldview, and CVS Health Corporation's overall score of 18.73 (as at 10/01/2020) is excellent – landing it in it in the 19th percentile of companies rated in the same sector.
ESG scores are increasingly used to estimate the level of risk a company like CVS Health Corporation is exposed to within the areas of "environmental" (carbon footprint, resource use etc.), "social" (health and safety, human rights etc.), and "governance" (anti-corruption, tax transparency etc.).
CVS Health Corporation's environmental score
Environmental score: 1.92/100
CVS Health Corporation's social score
Social score: 9.06/100
CVS Health Corporation's governance score
Governance score: 2.75/100
CVS Health Corporation's controversy score
Controversy score: 3/5
ESG scores also evaluate any incidences of controversy that a company has been involved in. CVS Health Corporation scored a 3 out of 5 for controversy – a middle-of-the-table result reflecting that CVS Health Corporation hasn't always managed to keep its nose clean.
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) summary
CVS Health Corporation was last rated for ESG on: 2020-10-01.
| Total ESG score | 18.73 |
|---|---|
| Total ESG percentile | 18.84 |
| Environmental score | 1.92 |
| Social score | 9.06 |
| Governance score | 2.75 |
| Level of controversy | 3 |
CVS Health Corporation share dividends
Dividend payout ratio: 24.63% of net profits
Recently CVS Health Corporation has paid out, on average, around 24.63% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 3.4% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), CVS Health Corporation shareholders could enjoy a 3.4% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In CVS Health Corporation's case, that would currently equate to about $2 per share.
While CVS Health Corporation's payout ratio might seem low, this can signify that CVS Health Corporation is investing more in its future growth.
CVS Health Corporation's most recent dividend payout was on 2 November 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 21 October 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").
Have CVS Health Corporation's shares ever split?
CVS Health Corporation's shares were split on a 2:1 basis on 7 June 2005. So if you had owned 1 share the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 2 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your CVS Health Corporation shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 50% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for CVS Health Corporation shares which in turn could have impacted CVS Health Corporation's share price.
CVS Health Corporation share price volatility
Over the last 12 months, CVS Health Corporation's shares have ranged in value from as little as $52.04 up to $76.44. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".
Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while CVS Health Corporation's is 0.6547. This would suggest that CVS Health Corporation's shares are less volatile than average (for this exchange).
CVS Health Corporation overview
CVS Health Corporation provides health services and plans in the United States. The company's Pharmacy Services segment offers pharmacy benefit management solutions, including plan design and administration, formulary management, retail pharmacy network management, mail order pharmacy, specialty pharmacy and infusion, clinical, and disease and medical spend management services. It serves employers, insurance companies, unions, government employee groups, health plans, prescription drug plans (PDPs), Medicaid managed care plans, plans offered on public health insurance and private health insurance exchanges, other sponsors of health benefit plans, and individuals. This segment operates retail specialty pharmacy stores; and specialty mail order, mail order dispensing, and compounding pharmacies, as well as branches for infusion and enteral nutrition services. Its Retail/LTC segment sells prescription and over-the-counter drugs, beauty and personal care products, and cosmetics; and provides health care services through its MinuteClinic walk-in medical clinics. This segment also distributes prescription drugs; and provides related pharmacy consulting and other ancillary services to chronic care facilities and other care settings. As of December 31, 2019, it operated approximately 9,900 retail locations and 1,100 MinuteClinic locations, as well as online retail pharmacy websites, LTC pharmacies, and onsite pharmacies. The company's Health Care Benefits segment offers traditional, voluntary, and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services. It serves employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, health care providers, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups, and expatriates. The company was formerly known as CVS Caremark Corporation and changed its name to CVS Health Corporation in September 2014. The company was founded in 1963 and is headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.
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