Tuesday, January 25, 2011

WellPoint's (NYSE:WLP) 2011 Guidance Expected to be Strong

The upcoming 2010 earnings report from WellPoint (NYSE:WLP) is expected to be solid, with guidance for 2011 even better, according to Jefferies (NYSE:JEF).

This should give a nice boost in share price for WellPoint, which has fallen behind other diversified HMOs by 100-400 bps in January. Still, they've had a decent January, rising by over 8 percent so far.

Another positive outlook is the cash the company has on hand suggest the probability of a repurchase of shares in the 10 to 15 percent range.

Jefferies is maintaining their "Buy" rating on WellPoint (WLP), which closed Monday at $60.99, falling $0.46, or 0.75 percent. They boosted their price target on WellPoint from $69 to $72.

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