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Anthem (ANTM) Stock Moves -1.06%: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Anthem closed at $277, marking a -1.06% move from the previous day. This move was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 3.51%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 2.78%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 4.96%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the health insurer had gained 1.57% over the past month. This has lagged the Medical sector's gain of 2.77% and the S&P 500's gain of 9.58% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from ANTM as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect ANTM to post earnings of $4.05 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 16.84%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $29.81 billion, up 12.72% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $22.42 per share and revenue of $118.46 billion. These totals would mark changes of +15.33% and +14.85%, respectively, from last year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for ANTM. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. ANTM currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, ANTM currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 12.49. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 16.34, which means ANTM is trading at a discount to the group.

It is also worth noting that ANTM currently has a PEG ratio of 0.85. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Medical - HMOs industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.52 as of yesterday's close.

The Medical - HMOs industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 33, which puts it in the top 13% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.

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