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Anthem (ANTM) Stock Moves -0.42%: What You Should Know

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Anthem closed at $498.30 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.42% move from the prior day. This change was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.08%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.81%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.22%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the health insurer had gained 2.27% over the past month. This has outpaced the Medical sector's gain of 1.97% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.03% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Anthem as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, Anthem is projected to report earnings of $7.74 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 10.1%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $38.04 billion, up 14.29% from the year-ago period.

ANTM's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $28.54 per share and revenue of $153.24 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +9.85% and +11.9%, respectively.

Investors might also notice 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.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.61% lower. Anthem is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, Anthem currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 17.53. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 17.17.

Also, we should mention that ANTM has a PEG ratio of 1.41. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Medical - HMOs industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.19 as of yesterday's close.

The Medical - HMOs industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 86, which puts it in the top 34% 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.

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

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