Anthem Inc (NYSE:ANTM) – Equities researchers at Piper Jaffray Companies raised their Q1 2021 EPS estimates for Anthem in a research note issued on Sunday, August 18th, according to Zacks Investment Research. Piper Jaffray Companies analyst S. James now forecasts that the company will post earnings of $8.12 per share for the quarter, up from their prior estimate of $8.07. Piper Jaffray Companies also issued estimates for Anthem’s Q2 2021 earnings at $6.84 EPS and FY2021 earnings at $26.34 EPS.
Anthem (NYSE:ANTM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The company reported $4.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.61 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $25.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $24.88 billion. Anthem had a return on equity of 15.02% and a net margin of 4.21%. Anthem’s quarterly revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $4.25 earnings per share.
A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on ANTM. ValuEngine downgraded Anthem from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 22nd. Zacks Investment Research downgraded Anthem from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $289.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Wells Fargo & Co reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Anthem in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Anthem from $359.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Finally, Citigroup raised Anthem from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $325.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. The stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $325.40.
NYSE:ANTM opened at $251.22 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 1.64 and a current ratio of 1.64. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $280.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $282.69. The company has a market cap of $66.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.81, a P/E/G ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 0.74. Anthem has a 52-week low of $227.16 and a 52-week high of $317.99.
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.80 per share. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. Anthem’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.14%.
In other news, Director Robert L. Dixon, Jr. sold 520 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $294.11, for a total transaction of $152,937.20. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,971 shares in the company, valued at $2,932,570.81. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thomas C. Zielinski sold 8,826 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $283.92, for a total value of $2,505,877.92. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 33,183 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,421,317.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.
Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ANTM. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC boosted its stake in shares of Anthem by 101.2% in the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 3,821,672 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,078,514,000 after buying an additional 1,921,814 shares during the period. Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Anthem by 5,130.7% in the second quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 1,531,222 shares of the company’s stock valued at $432,125,000 after buying an additional 1,501,948 shares during the period. Boston Partners boosted its stake in shares of Anthem by 33.9% in the second quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,437,084 shares of the company’s stock valued at $688,249,000 after buying an additional 617,137 shares during the period. Egerton Capital UK LLP boosted its stake in shares of Anthem by 176.8% in the first quarter. Egerton Capital UK LLP now owns 694,185 shares of the company’s stock valued at $199,217,000 after buying an additional 443,428 shares during the period. Finally, Prudential PLC boosted its stake in shares of Anthem by 108.1% in the second quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 821,298 shares of the company’s stock valued at $231,673,000 after buying an additional 426,668 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.69% of the company’s stock.
About Anthem
Anthem, Inc, through its subsidiaries, operates as a health benefits company in the United States. It operates through three segments: Commercial & Specialty Business, Government Business, and Other. The company offers a spectrum of network-based managed care health benefit plans to large and small group, individual, Medicaid, and Medicare markets.