Jefferies Group reissued their buy rating on shares of Aetna (NYSE: AET) in a research report released on Wednesday morning. Jefferies Group currently has a $61.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $58.00.

“AET is our favorite Managed Care stock with 27% upside to our $61 price target (up from $58). Pro-forma for the CVH acquisition (close expected mid-2013), AET is the cheapest at 7.5x 2014E EPS. We believe the company’s 2013 guidance is conservative, and that AET will deliver, if not exceed, the $0.45-0.90 EPS accretion guidance in 2014-15. This should enable AET to achieve a LT EPS CAGR in the low-to-mid teens.,” the firm’s analyst wrote.

AET has been the subject of a number of other recent research reports. Analysts at TheStreet reiterated a buy rating on shares of Aetna in a research note to investors on Monday. Finally, analysts at Zacks reiterated a neutral rating on shares of Aetna in a research note to investors on Tuesday, February 5th. They now have a $51.00 price target on the stock.

Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, one has given an overweight rating, and eight have issued a hold rating to the company. Aetna currently has a consensus rating of overweight and a consensus target price of $54.83.

Aetna traded up 1.40% on Wednesday, hitting $50.285. Aetna has a 1-year low of $34.58 and a 1-year high of $51.14. The stock’s 50-day moving average is currently $48.63. The company has a market cap of $16.493 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.31.

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which is scheduled for Friday, April 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th.

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