Can Elevance (ELV) Hike Prices to Accommodate Rising Costs?

23 hours ago 1

Soumya Eswaran

Tue, December 30, 2025 astatine 6:01 AM CST 3 min read

Artisan Partners, an concern absorption company, released its “Artisan Value Fund” third-quarter 2025 capitalist letter. A transcript of the missive tin beryllium downloaded here. The equity marketplace rally persisted successful the 3rd 4th arsenic investors ignored tariffs, buoyed by beardown firm earnings, rising AI investment, and prospects of economical enactment from US fiscal argumentation and little involvement rates. Against this backdrop, the fund’s Investor Class ARTLX, Advisor Class APDLX, and Institutional Class APHLX returned 0.83%, 0.91%, and 0.90%, respectively, successful the 3rd 4th compared to a 5.33% instrumentality for the Russell 1000 Value Index. In addition, you tin cheque the apical 5 holdings of the money to cognize its champion picks successful 2025.

In its third-quarter 2025 capitalist letter, Artisan Value Fund highlighted stocks specified arsenic Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV). Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV) is simply a wellness benefits company. The one-month instrumentality of Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV) was 5.28%, and its shares mislaid 5.56% of their worth implicit the past 52 weeks. On December 29, 2025, Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV) banal closed astatine $348.38 per share, with a marketplace capitalization of $77.42 billion.

Artisan Value Fund stated the pursuing regarding Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV) successful its 3rd 4th 2025 capitalist letter:

"Though the rally’s tide lifted astir boats, we’re inactive uncovering our stock of unloved and out-of-favor businesses. In Q3, we made 3 caller purchases: Accenture, Salesforce and Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE:ELV). We swapped 1 managed attraction institution for different successful purchasing Elevance and selling Cigna. Both companies run wellness security businesses and commercialized cheaply, but their concern mixes are different. Formerly known arsenic Anthem and Wellpoint, Elevance is 1 of the nation’s largest wellness insurers and the largest for-profit entity successful the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. The institution operates successful commercial, Medicare Advantage and Medicaid done its wellness benefits conception and provides pharmacy benefits, beingness security and disablement insurance. Cigna has a overmuch larger pharmacy benefits absorption (PBM)business that generates implicit 50% of operating profits. There are rumblings successful Washington astir PBM reform, which should airs a greater hazard to Cigna than to Elevance. Our concern lawsuit for Elevance, similar different managed attraction companies, is its presently depressed net tin retrieve arsenic pricing adjusts higher successful enactment with rising costs, and arsenic this occurs, the banal terms aggregate tin besides normalize. At the clip of archetypal purchase, Elevance shares were trading nether 10X depressed 2025 expected net per share, compared to its 10-year mean of 16X."