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NYSE:CVS
This summary was created by AI, based on 9 opinions in the last 12 months.
CVS Health Corp has garnered mixed reviews from experts, reflecting a complex outlook for the company. While recent earnings exceeded expectations and led to a significant share price increase, analysts remain cautious due to underlying challenges in its Caremark business and uncertainties surrounding visibility in earnings. The comparison with higher-quality growth stocks suggests that CVS may have more execution risk, even as its valuation appears cheaper relative to competitors. The company's shift towards a managed care model and the impact of its drugstore segment raises questions about its long-term performance. Overall, CVS could be a compelling option within its sector, especially when considering the potential for recovery and improvements in management strategy.
Struggling with high debt load. Healthcare space and insurance going into the US election, plus Supreme Court nomination, are creating uncertainty. Big boom in telehealth, and this bites into the local CVS option. It's going to be a very competitive business. Challenged. He'd go with UnitedHealth instead.
Regulations in the U.S. may affect distribution They recently bought health insurer Aetna. A cheap stock trading at 9x forward earnings. Not sure why the price has come off in the past month, maybe a rotation into momentum. The PBM business (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmacy_benefit_management) always has an overhang with the US government wanting to lower prices. These worries are absorbed into the CVS stock price. Also, CVS has had to pay more for PPE and labour wages, but these costs should abate in time. The current price reflects all these overhangs.
WBA He has owned CVS instead in the past. This and WBA have been hit hard in recent years from a lingering concern over pressure on drug prices in the U.S. So, both have expanded into drug distribution, not just drug retail. The multiple that the market will pay for either has compressed. So, he prefers other stocks in this space, like Loblaws (which owns Shoppers Drug Mart) Drug. Traditionally, drug retailing is a stable business, but in the U.S. the pricing issue remains an overhang.
Opportunities to lower cost structure of US healthcare are welcome. US healthcare is more expensive than elsewhere in the world. You're better to invest in a new concept that is under cover of an existing business, such as CVS. A pure play like TDOC is benefitting from Covid, and the stock price might wane when it's not such front page news.
He has chosen to exit their holding about a year ago, based on their UK alliance (due to Brexit). He participates in the space with CVS instead, who bought a pharmacy benefits company. CVS has more than 10,000 locations in the US. The company has become vertically integrated, which gives them a long runway. Their "Health Hub" offers medical practitioners to people who would not otherwise have access to one.