Anthem Soars to a Record High After Announcing This

Shares of health insurance company Anthem were popping on Wednesday after the company announced that it plans to roll out its new pharmacy benefits management unit IngenioRx sooner than expected.

Wall Street was also cheering that the company’s earnings guidance for this year beat forecasts.

The stock soared over 12% on the news and hit an all-time new intra-day high of $305.99 a share.

“IngenioRx will improve our ability to integrate pharmacy benefits within our already strong medical and specialty platform driving greater value for the consumer and increasing transparency,” said Anthem CEO Gail Boudreaux.

She added, “To date we have completed more than 15 months of preparation against our transition goal. The results of our operational testing have been very positive giving us confidence in our readiness to launch.”

According to the company, once the transition to IngenioRx is completed next year, Anthem will see an estimated roughly $4 billion in annual savings. The fact that executives have promised to return at least 20 percent of those savings to shareholders may have added to why the stock exploded.

“Our customers will see value upon conversion to the new platform, so we think that there’s a significant opportunity to drive meaningful value for them in terms of affordability as well as the member and consumer experience,” Boudreaux also said.

Anthem reported fourth quarter results, revealing profits of $2.44 a share. This beat estimates of $2.20 a share. Revenues were however a little below what was expected at $23.3 billion.

For 2019, the company expects annual earnings of more $19 per share, and revenues over $100 billion.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Anthem Inc. (NYSE: ANTM) and have not been compensated for this article.