Shares of Anthem Inc. ANTM, +1.45% rose 1.1% in afternoon trade Wednesday, but pared earlier gains of as much as 1.7% to an all-time intraday high of $268.28, after Morgan Stanley turned bullish on the the health insurer, saying that with great pharmacy-benefit-manager (PBM) disruption comes great opportunity. Analyst Zack Sopcak raised his rating to overweight, after being at equal weight since June 2017. He boosted his stock price target by 35% to $368 from $273. He said the upheaval in the PBM landscape, as a result of mergers and government-led drug pricing reform positions Anthem for underappreciated share gain and accelerated profit growth. "As the dust settles on what has been an extremely active [about] 11 months in the space from M&A to regulatory changes, we view the integrated [managed care organization]/PBM as the winning model in a post-drug-rebate/increased transparency world," Sopack wrote in a note to clients. The stock has climbed 17.0% over the past three months, while the SPDR Health Care Select Sector ETF XLV, -0.43% has advanced 10.5% and the S&P 500 SPX, -0.49% has gained 5.1%.
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