Alaethes Wealth LLC Invests $214,000 in McKesson Co. (NYSE:MCK)

Alaethes Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in McKesson Co. (NYSE:MCK) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $214,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. increased its position in McKesson by 6.0% during the second quarter. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 526 shares of the company’s stock worth $307,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of McKesson during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,596,000. Sompo Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of McKesson by 6.5% during the second quarter. Sompo Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 660 shares of the company’s stock worth $385,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the period. Transatlantique Private Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of McKesson by 1.4% in the second quarter. Transatlantique Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,118 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,237,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its stake in shares of McKesson by 5.5% in the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 19,036 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,117,000 after buying an additional 998 shares during the period. 85.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on MCK shares. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on McKesson from $576.00 to $535.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of McKesson from $656.00 to $661.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. Argus raised their target price on shares of McKesson from $570.00 to $670.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 24th. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of McKesson from $670.00 to $630.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of McKesson from $694.00 to $671.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $620.93.

McKesson Stock Performance

Shares of MCK opened at $507.89 on Friday. McKesson Co. has a 52 week low of $431.35 and a 52 week high of $637.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $65.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.69, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 0.44. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $560.25 and a 200-day moving average of $556.82.

McKesson (NYSE:MCK) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported $7.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.21 by $0.67. McKesson had a negative return on equity of 242.57% and a net margin of 0.94%. The business had revenue of $79.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $82.53 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $7.27 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that McKesson Co. will post 32.11 EPS for the current year.

McKesson Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Monday, September 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th. This is an increase from McKesson’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.56%. McKesson’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 12.69%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Brian S. Tyler sold 3,753 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $561.10, for a total transaction of $2,105,808.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 78,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,094,604.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 11,259 shares of company stock valued at $6,635,492 in the last ninety days. 0.11% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

McKesson Profile

McKesson Corporation provides healthcare services in the United States and internationally. It operates through four segments: U.S. Pharmaceutical, Prescription Technology Solutions (RxTS), Medical-Surgical Solutions, and International. The U.S. Pharmaceutical segment distributes branded, generic, specialty, biosimilar and over-the-counter pharmaceutical drugs, and other healthcare-related products.