How to buy CVS Health Corporation shares

CVS Health Corporation (CVS) is a leading healthcare plans business with stocks listed in the US. It opened the day at US$76.31 after a previous close of US$76.7. During the day the price has varied from a low of USD75.25 to a high of USD76.44. The latest price was USD76.18 (25 minute delay). CVS Health Corporation is listed on the NYSE. All prices are listed in US Dollars.

How to buy shares in CVS Health Corporation

1. Compare share trading platforms. To buy shares in a US company from Australia you'll need to find a trading platform that offers access to US stock markets. If you're just starting out, look for a platform with low brokerage and foreign exchange fees.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and tax file number. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for CVS Health Corporation. Find the share by name or ticker symbol: CVS. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. 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 risk, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. Weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimise 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.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of CVS Health Corporation. Optimise 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.

CVS Health Corporation share price

Use our graph to track the performance of CVS stocks over time.

CVS Health Corporation shares at a glance

• Live prices
• Key figures

Information last updated 2021-04-22.

Open	US$76.31
High	US$76.44
Low	US$75.25
Close	US$76.18
Previous close	US$76.7
Change	US$-0.52
Change %	-0.678%
Volume	5,642,405

Information last updated 2021-04-15.

52-week range	US$54.9922 - US$77.2302
50-day moving average	US$72.9897
200-day moving average	US$68.9762
Target price	US$86.77
PE ratio	13.7434
Dividend yield	US$2 (2.7%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	US$5.463

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The value of your investments can fall as well as rise and you may get back less than you invested. Past performance is no indication of future results.

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.

Technical Analysis of CVS Health Corporation by TradingView

CVS Health Corporation price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the last close of $76.18

1 week (2021-04-16)	0.40%
1 month (2021-03-19)	4.10%
3 months (2021-01-22)	2.78%
6 months (2020-10-22)	28.08%

1 year (2020-04-22)	26.23%
2 years (2019-04-22)	45.30%
3 years (2018-04-20)	16.98%
5 years (2016-04-22)	-24.90%

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 14x. In other words, CVS Health Corporation shares trade at around 14x 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 1.5873. 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 US$18.1 billion (£13.1 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	US$267.9 billion
Operating margin TTM	5.1%
Gross profit TTM	US$48.2 billion
Return on assets TTM	3.77%
Return on equity TTM	10.76%
Profit margin	2.68%
Book value	52.969
Market capitalisation	US$98.5 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting CVS Health Corporation shares

There are currently 15.1 million CVS Health Corporation shares held short by investors – that's known as CVS Health Corporation's "short interest". This figure is 18.8% down from 18.6 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 7.1 million). CVS Health Corporation's SIR currently stands at 2.14. In other words for every 100,000 CVS Health Corporation shares traded daily on the market, roughly 2140 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 0.01% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 CVS Health Corporation shares in existence, roughly 10 shares are currently held short) or 0.0116% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable CVS Health Corporation shares, roughly 12 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 12/31/2018) 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: 2019-01-01.

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: 26.63% of net profits

Recently CVS Health Corporation has paid out, on average, around 26.63% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 2.66% 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 2.66% 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 fairly standard, it's worth remembering that CVS Health Corporation may be investing much of the rest of its net profits in future growth.

CVS Health Corporation's most recent dividend payout was on 2 May 2021. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 21 April 2021 (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 6 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 US$54.9922 up to US$77.2302. 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 0.8218. 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 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, 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, consumer health and beauty products, and personal care products; 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, 2020, 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. CVS Health Corporation was founded in 1963 and is headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of CVS Health Corporation is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 0.184% of CVS Health Corporation shares are held by insiders and 78.505% by institutions.

• When does the fiscal year end for CVS Health Corporation?

  CVS Health Corporation's fiscal year ends in December.

• Where is CVS Health Corporation based?

  CVS Health Corporation's address is: One CVS Drive, Woonsocket, RI, United States, 02895

• What is CVS Health Corporation's ISIN number?

  CVS Health Corporation's international securities identification number is: US1266501006

• What is CVS Health Corporation's CUSIP number?

  CVS Health Corporation's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 126650100