We recently published a list of the 8 Best Dividend Leaders to Buy According to Wall Street Analysts. In this article, we are going to take a look at where CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) stands against the other best dividend leaders to buy.
Investors have long been drawn to dividend stocks due to their financial stability and impressive returns, which have consistently outperformed other asset classes over the years. While these stocks may be underperforming at the moment, their long-term returns make them an attractive choice for investors. This means that building wealth through dividends requires patience, as the rewards accumulate over time rather than delivering instant results. The long-term performance of dividend stocks highlights their importance. According to a report by Hartford Funds, over the past several decades, dividends have been a major contributor to investor returns. Since 1960, reinvested dividends and the power of compounding have accounted for 85% of the cumulative total return of the broader market. The report also mentioned that in the 1940s, 1960s, and 1970s—periods when total returns were below 10%—dividends made a significant contribution to overall returns.
Investors often gravitate toward dividend-paying stocks during market downturns or periods of economic uncertainty. Companies with substantial payouts, such as those in utilities and consumer staples, are known for generating consistent earnings regardless of market conditions. However, during market rallies, these stocks typically underperform. This trend has been particularly noticeable since 2020, as mega-tech stocks have frequently driven the market to record highs.
Chris O’Keefe, a portfolio manager at Logan Capital Management, suggested that the growing performance gap between the broader market and dividend stocks this year presents an ideal opportunity for investors to consider buying dividend stocks. In addition to O’Keefe, several analysts are urging investors to focus on dividend stocks, citing their favorable outlook. The Dividend Aristocrats Index, which tracks 66 companies that have consistently increased their dividends annually for the past 25 years, has struggled to keep up with the broader market since 2020. Dividend-paying stocks experienced a resurgence in 2022, as recession fears prompted investors to turn to stable sectors like utilities and consumer goods. However, the rebound was short-lived. By 2023, rising interest rates pushed bond and money-market returns higher than dividend yields, leading major companies to adopt a cautious approach and tighten cash reserves amid economic uncertainty. This year, many of the same leading stocks from the Covid era have once again propelled the market to record highs.
The Dividend Aristocrats Index has risen nearly 5% since the beginning of 2024, while the broader market has returned 24%. Despite underperforming, dividend stocks remain a preferred choice for investors. A Morningstar report revealed that US exchange-traded funds (ETFs) focused on dividends held nearly $500 billion in investor assets by the fourth quarter of 2024, with additional billions in actively managed equity income funds. These funds have seen inflows this year, though much smaller compared to the $70 billion they attracted in 2022, which was a strong year for dividends.
Bank of America analyst Ohsung Kwon believes a resurgence in dividend stocks could be on the horizon. His team anticipates that the companies in the broader market will collectively boost their dividend payouts by 10% in 2025, driven by investor demand for cash. Reflecting this trend, even major tech firms have begun distributing dividends.
A row of shelves in a retail pharmacy, demonstrating the variety of drugs and over-the-counter products.
Our Methodology
For this list, we scanned holdings of First Trust Morningstar Dividend Leaders Index Fund (FDL), which tracks the performance of the 100 highest-yielding stocks with consistent growth in dividends and can maintain their dividends in the future. From this list, we further refined our selection criteria by identifying stocks with a projected upside potential of over 15% based on analyst price targets, as of December 19. The stocks are ranked according to their upside potential. We also considered hedge fund sentiment around each stock using Insider Monkey’s data for Q3 2024.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points. (see more details here).
CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS)
Upside Potential as of December 19: 54.2%
CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) is an American healthcare company that operates a retail pharmacy chain. The company utilizes its extensive retail network to provide access to a wide array of health services and pharmacy benefits, supported by its Aetna health insurance division, which serves over 27 million members. Although this vertically integrated model aims to deliver cost savings and efficiency throughout the healthcare supply chain, recent performance has fallen short of expectations. Increased enrollment in its health plans, especially among seniors in Medicare Advantage programs, combined with high service utilization and persistent cost pressures, has negatively affected profitability. The stock is down by nearly 46% since the start of 2024.
That said, CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) reported strong earnings in the third quarter of 2024. The company’s revenue of $95.4 billion grew by over 6.3% on a YoY basis. The results showcased robust performance in the Health Services and Pharmacy & Consumer Wellness segments. However, they also emphasized the ongoing need for a collaborative approach across the enterprise to address macroeconomic challenges impacting the Health Care Benefits segment.
In the first nine months of the year, CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) generated an operating cash flow of $7.2 billion. The company ended the quarter with $6.9 billion available in cash and cash equivalents. Though the company does not hold any dividend growth streak, it has been making regular dividend payments to shareholders since 1997. Its quarterly dividend comes in at $0.665 per share for a dividend yield of 6.08%, as of December 19. With an upside potential of 54.2%, CVS is one of the best dividend leaders on our list.
As of the end of Q3 2024, 63 hedge funds, growing from 60 in the previous quarter, held stakes in CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS), according to Insider Monkey’s database. The overall value of these stakes is over $4.2 billion.
Overall, CVS ranks 1st on our list of the best dividend leaders according to analysts. While we acknowledge the potential for CVS to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than CVS but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 8 Best Wide Moat Stocks to Buy Now and 30 Most Important AI Stocks According to BlackRock.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
