Morgan Stanley Overweight On Coventry Health Care (CVH)

Morgan Stanley has an Overweight rating and a $35 price target on shares of Coventry Health Care CVH after the company reported earnings. In a note to clients, Morgan Stanley writes, "CVH reported Q1 operating EPS of $0.66 (excluding the $0.08 from the run-out of the MA-PFFS book), which easily cleared our/Street forecasts of $0.54/$0.50. A slightly stronger top line coupled with a lower MLR and SG&A ratio spurred earnings overage in the quarter. CVH raised its outlook by $0.15 on each end to $2.65-$2.85, which compares with our/Street forecasts of $2.85/$2.90. We consider this a strong quarter, though the beat is not of the magnitude posted by some of the larger cap peers." Shares of CVH are down $1.57 in early Friday trading to $32.79, a loss of 4.66%.