UNH vs. CVS: Which Healthcare Stock Offers Greater Potential for Growth, According to Wall Street?
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Source: TipRanks
Updated: Sep 08 20250mins
UnitedHealth Group's Recovery: UnitedHealth has faced a 37% decline in 2025 due to weak financials and regulatory issues but has recently gained 4% as market conditions improve, with analysts maintaining a positive outlook and raising price targets.
CVS Health's Strong Performance: CVS Health has surged 70% in 2025, driven by strong earnings and cost-cutting measures, with analysts upgrading their ratings and projecting earnings growth of 14% per year through 2028, indicating a more attractive investment compared to UnitedHealth.
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Analyst Views on CVS
Wall Street analysts forecast CVS stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for CVS is 89.93 USD with a low forecast of 75.00 USD and a high forecast of 102.00 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.
16 Analyst Rating
15 Buy
1 Hold
0 Sell
Strong Buy
Current: 76.750
Low
75.00
Averages
89.93
High
102.00
Current: 76.750
Low
75.00
Averages
89.93
High
102.00
Bernstein
Market Perform
maintain
$77 -> $86
2025-12-04
New
Reason
Bernstein
Price Target
$77 -> $86
2025-12-04
New
maintain
Market Perform
Reason
Bernstein raised the firm's price target on CVS Health to $86 from $77 and keeps a Market Perform rating on the shares. The firm believes CVS is executing very well on its turnaround, but sees the pharmacy benefit manager environment as complex and presenting headwinds to EPS growth in the near term. Over time, Bernstein sees Aetna as an attractive growth engine, and anticipates PBM growth will resume with drug spend growth, the analyst tells investors in a research note.
Wells Fargo
Stephen Baxter
Overweight
downgrade
$103 -> $102
2025-11-13
Reason
Wells Fargo
Stephen Baxter
Price Target
$103 -> $102
2025-11-13
downgrade
Overweight
Reason
Wells Fargo analyst Stephen Baxter lowered the firm's price target on CVS Health to $102 from $103 and keeps an Overweight rating on the shares. Overall, results in Q3 were solid, but the bull case for HCB in 2025 moderates some on steeper Part D MLR, the firm says. Wells' 2025 EPS estimate increases, with 2026 unchanged and modestly ahead of what CVS framed as a reasonable starting point for guidance.
TD Cowen
Buy
maintain
$99 -> $100
2025-11-03
Reason
TD Cowen
Price Target
$99 -> $100
2025-11-03
maintain
Buy
Reason
TD Cowen raised the firm's price target on CVS Health to $100 from $99 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. The firm update its estimates following 3Q25 results, where management raised its 2025 adj. EPS guide to $6.55-$6.65 from $6.30-$6.40 and provided preliminary a preliminary 2026 framework
RBC Capital
Outperform
maintain
$81 -> $93
2025-10-30
Reason
RBC Capital
Price Target
$81 -> $93
2025-10-30
maintain
Outperform
Reason
RBC Capital raised the firm's price target on CVS Health to $93 from $81 and keeps an Outperform rating on the shares. The company reported a solid Q3 EPS beat with Medical Benefit Ratio comfortably below expectations after adjusting for prior-period one-time items and trend in the non-continuing ACA exchange business, the analyst tells investors in a research note.
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About CVS
CVS Health Corporation is a health solutions company. The Company's segments include Health Care Benefits, Health Services, Pharmacy & Consumer Wellness and Corporate/Other. Health Care Benefits segment offers a broad range of traditional, voluntary and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services, including medical, pharmacy, dental and behavioral health plans, PDPs and Medicaid health care management services. Health Services segment provides a full range of pharmacy benefit management (PBM) solutions through its CVS Caremark operations and delivers health care services in its medical clinics, virtually, and in the home. Pharmacy & Consumer Wellness segment dispenses prescriptions in its CVS Pharmacy retail locations and through its infusion operations, provides ancillary pharmacy services including pharmacy patient care programs, diagnostic testing and vaccination administration, and sells a wide assortment of health and wellness products and general merchandise.
About the author
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Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
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