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Anthem (ANTM) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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Anthem closed at $512.43 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.52% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.99%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 1.61%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.06%.

Coming into today, shares of the health insurer had lost 0.71% in the past month. In that same time, the Medical sector lost 4.09%, while the S&P 500 lost 7.24%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Anthem as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect Anthem to post earnings of $7.79 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 10.81%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $38.01 billion, up 14.22% from the year-ago period.

ANTM's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $28.50 per share and revenue of $153.07 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +9.7% and +11.77%, respectively.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Anthem. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.08% higher within the past month. Anthem is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Looking at its valuation, Anthem is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 17.71. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 17.88.

Also, we should mention that ANTM has a PEG ratio of 1.42. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. Medical - HMOs stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.21 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Medical - HMOs industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 81, which puts it in the top 33% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.

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