ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Reduces Stake in Elevance Health, Inc. $ELV

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV) by 23.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 94,986 shares of the company’s stock after selling 29,145 shares during the period. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Elevance Health were worth $30,692,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of ELV. OLD National Bancorp IN increased its stake in shares of Elevance Health by 44.8% in the second quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 6,267 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,438,000 after purchasing an additional 1,939 shares in the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Elevance Health by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 21,213 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,251,000 after buying an additional 790 shares during the period. Lombard Odier Asset Management Switzerland SA grew its stake in Elevance Health by 14.3% in the 2nd quarter. Lombard Odier Asset Management Switzerland SA now owns 14,162 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,508,000 after buying an additional 1,768 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors raised its holdings in Elevance Health by 17.0% during the 2nd quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 27,434 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,671,000 after acquiring an additional 3,988 shares during the period. Finally, Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC lifted its position in shares of Elevance Health by 11.3% during the second quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 8,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,125,000 after acquiring an additional 817 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ELV. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $320.00 price target (down from $332.00) on shares of Elevance Health in a research report on Friday, December 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their target price on Elevance Health from $445.00 to $420.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Elevance Health from $384.00 to $394.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Elevance Health in a report on Wednesday, November 26th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $400.00 target price on shares of Elevance Health in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $396.21.

Elevance Health Trading Up 0.0%

NYSE ELV opened at $343.30 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $76.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 0.52. Elevance Health, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $273.71 and a fifty-two week high of $458.75. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $334.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $330.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a current ratio of 1.56.

Elevance Health (NYSE:ELV) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 21st. The company reported $6.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.03 by $1.00. Elevance Health had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 2.84%.The company had revenue of $50.09 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $8.37 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Elevance Health, Inc. will post 33.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Elevance Health Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 5th were given a $1.71 dividend. This represents a $6.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 5th. Elevance Health’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.96%.

About Elevance Health

Elevance Health, Inc (NYSE: ELV) is a large U.S.-based health benefits company that provides a broad range of health insurance products and related services. Headquartered in Indianapolis, the company rebranded from Anthem, Inc to Elevance Health in 2022 while continuing to operate consumer-facing health plans under established state and national brands. Gail Boudreaux serves as chief executive officer and president, leading the company’s strategic focus on integrated health care and benefit delivery.

Elevance’s core activities include offering medical and specialty health plans for individuals, employers and government programs, including Medicare and Medicaid managed-care products.