🏥 Elevance Health (NYSE: ELV): The CEO Bought Again. We're Still Buying the Story.

Elevance Health

NYSE: ELV

$373.11

▲ +$0.26 (+0.07%)

As of Jul. 17, 2026 – 4:10 PM ET

🔄 One Year Later...

Exactly one year ago and following a first round of insider purchases (including by the CEO herself)—on July 19, 2025—we published a bullish article on Elevance Health entitled:

"Can Elevance Reach Higher Elevations? The CEO Thinks So."

At the time, shares traded around $277.09.

Fast forward twelve months.

The stock has climbed approximately 25.7%.

Normally, after that kind of move, we'd begin asking whether the easy money has already been made.

Surprisingly...

We're asking almost the opposite question.

Because despite the rally, the investment thesis has barely changed.

The company remains inexpensive.

Management continues buying shares.

Institutions continue accumulating.

The business continues producing mountains of cash.

And Wall Street still appears to value Elevance more like a struggling insurer than an increasingly diversified healthcare platform.

Sometimes a winning investment thesis doesn't need reinventing.

It simply needs time.

Healthcare investing rarely generates the excitement of artificial intelligence, quantum computing or humanoid robots.

Nobody rushes to cocktail parties to debate pharmacy benefit managers.

Yet healthcare has one tremendous advantage over nearly every fashionable investment trend.

People simply refuse to stop getting sick.

Fortunately.

Or unfortunately.

Depending on which side of the deductible you're standing.

🏥 Elevance Is Much More Than "An Insurance Company"

Many investors still picture the company as the former Anthem.

That description is increasingly outdated.

Today's Elevance is quietly building something considerably broader.

Its businesses include:

✔️ Commercial health insurance

✔️ Medicare

✔️ Medicaid

✔️ Pharmacy services (CarelonRx)

✔️ Behavioral healthcare

✔️ Virtual healthcare

✔️ Home healthcare

✔️ Clinical analytics

✔️ Healthcare technology

✔️ Care coordination

✔️ Payment integrity

✔️ Data platforms

In other words...

Healthcare isn't merely becoming more expensive.

It's becoming more integrated.

Elevance wants to participate in nearly every step of that journey.

The market still seems focused on insurance premiums.

Management appears focused on building an entire healthcare ecosystem.

Those are very different businesses.

🚀 Trigger #1: The People Who Know the Business Best Keep Buying

There are insider purchases.

Then there are repeat insider purchases.

Those deserve attention.

On July 17, another director purchased roughly $366,000 worth of shares.

More importantly...

CEO Gail Boudreaux purchased 2,725 shares, investing over $1 million of her own money at $367.79 per share.

Could she be wrong?

Absolutely.

Insiders aren't prophets.

But they possess something the rest of us never fully will.

Context.

They see reimbursement trends.

Membership dynamics.

Medical costs.

Competitive positioning.

Capital allocation.

Operational execution.

Before any quarterly conference call reaches our ears.

One insider purchase may simply reflect optimism.

A pattern of purchases by senior leadership deserves considerably more respect.

🚀 FUNanc1al Atomic Statement™

🗣️ The Insider Persistence Principle™

"One insider purchase can be luck. Repeated insider purchases become a conversation. Smart investors should listen." — FUNanc1al

🏦 Trigger #2: Institutions Continue Voting With Billions

Wall Street often claims institutions are "smart money."

That isn't always true.

But dismissing them entirely isn't particularly smart either.

Institutional investors currently own roughly 93.5% of Elevance's shares.

Think about that.

Nearly the entire company sits inside pension funds, mutual funds, ETFs and professional asset managers.

Among the largest shareholders:

🏛️ BlackRock (owns 9.17% of shares outstanding)

🏛️ Vanguard

🏛️ State Street

🏛️ Wellington

🏛️ Artisan Partners

🏛️ Harris Associates

Collectively...

These firms oversee trillions of dollars.

Could all of them eventually prove wrong?

Certainly.

Markets remain wonderfully democratic.

But enormous institutional ownership generally reflects confidence in a company's durability rather than excitement over next week's earnings report.

Meanwhile...

Short interest remains modest at roughly 2.8%.

That suggests surprisingly little appetite among professional investors or speculators to bet aggressively against the business.

When insiders are buying...

Institutions remain heavily invested...

And short sellers aren't particularly interested...

It's usually worth asking whether the market has become overly pessimistic for reasons that may eventually reverse.

For Elevance Health (NYSE: ELV)’s Institutional Ownership breakdown, 🔍 see here.

📊 Trigger #3: Wall Street Still Thinks There's Room To Run

Analysts don't always agree.

If they did, there would be no market.

Yet Elevance currently enjoys a broad consensus ranging from Moderate Buy to Buy, with average price targets around $435.

Several firms increased their targets after the latest earnings report.

Not because management promised miracles.

Because execution improved.

Healthcare is one of the least glamorous sectors on Earth.

Nobody becomes a social-media celebrity discussing claims ratios.

But investors eventually notice businesses that quietly continue delivering.

Wall Street appears to be noticing again.

💰 Trigger #4: Cheap Stocks Sometimes Stay Cheap...

...until they don't.

After rising roughly 26% over the past year, many investors would reasonably assume Elevance now trades at a premium.

It doesn't.

Not even close.

Consider today's valuation:

📉 Forward P/E: 13.9

📉 Price-to-Sales: 0.41

📉 Enterprise Value / Revenue: 0.51

Those aren't technology multiples.

They're barely healthcare multiples.

Even more interesting...

Shares still trade approximately 34% below their all-time high.

Sometimes markets overreact upward.

Sometimes they overreact downward.

The opportunity often lies somewhere between panic and perfection.

🚀 FUNanc1al Atomic Statement™

🗣️ The Valuation Elasticity Rule™

"A great business doesn't stop being a bargain simply because the stock finally remembered it was one." — FUNanc1al

📈 Trigger #5: Earnings Quietly Strengthen the Story

Sometimes the market rewards spectacular growth.

Other times...

It rewards steady execution.

Elevance's second-quarter results looked much closer to the latter.

Adjusted earnings came in at $7.45 per share, comfortably ahead of Wall Street expectations. Revenue climbed to $49.8 billion, while management raised full-year adjusted EPS guidance to at least $27.00.

Perhaps most encouraging wasn't the headline beat itself.

It was why the beat happened.

Carelon—the company's increasingly important healthcare services platform—continued growing, pharmacy operations remained strong, and management demonstrated improving control over medical costs.

Meanwhile, Elevance continued returning capital to shareholders through both dividends and share repurchases.

Healthcare isn't a business where fireworks matter.

Consistency does.

And consistency appears to be returning.

👉 Want the full picture? Dive into Elevance Health (ELV)'s financials here.

🚀 FUNanc1al Atomic Statement™

🗣️ The Healthcare Compounding Principle™

"Healthcare demand doesn't retire. It ages, compounds, and keeps showing up every morning. The companies that manage it well tend to compound alongside it." — FUNanc1al

⚠️ Risks

No investment deserves blind optimism.

Healthcare certainly doesn't.

Several meaningful risks remain.

🏛️ Regulation

Healthcare is one of America's most heavily regulated industries.

Changes to Medicare reimbursement, Medicaid funding, or Affordable Care Act policies can materially affect profitability.

Politics has a habit of becoming earnings guidance.

💰 Medical Cost Inflation

Medical inflation hasn't disappeared.

If healthcare utilization accelerates faster than expected, margins could come under pressure.

Pricing healthcare remains one of the most difficult balancing acts in corporate America.

😐 Sentiment

Healthcare has spent much of the past two years in Wall Street's penalty box.

Although sentiment has improved considerably, investors remain cautious toward managed-care companies.

Sometimes perception changes slowly—even after fundamentals improve.

📉 Short-Term Volatility

Could ELV fall another 10–15%?

Absolutely.

Stocks rarely move in straight lines.

Long-term investing requires accepting short-term turbulence.

💡💡💡 Curious about another deep oil exploration play? (joke)
Check our takes on UnitedHealth Group or even Oscar Health.

🧭 Bottom Line

Our opinion today looks remarkably similar to the one we published a year ago.

That's not because nothing has changed.

It's because most of the important things have changed in the right direction.

✔️ Management continues buying.

✔️ Institutions remain deeply committed.

✔️ Earnings continue outperforming expectations.

✔️ Guidance moved higher.

✔️ Cash generation remains impressive.

✔️ Valuation still looks attractive.

Could we be wrong?

Of course.

Every investment carries uncertainty.

But when experienced management invests over a million dollars alongside shareholders...

When institutions continue owning nearly the entire company...

When valuation remains modest...

When the business keeps quietly executing...

We're inclined to keep listening.

Elevance may have changed its name from Anthem.

But management is still singing an anthem.

Investors may want to listen.

📌 Signal Extract

"One insider purchase can be luck. Repeated insider purchases become a conversation. Smart investors should listen." — FUNanc1al

🎯 High-Conviction Takeaway

"A great business doesn't stop being a bargain simply because the stock finally remembered it was one." — FUNanc1al

❓ FAQ

Why are insider purchases important?

Executives and directors know their businesses better than outside investors. While insiders are not always right, repeated purchases—especially by a CEO—often signal confidence in the company's long-term prospects.

Isn't healthcare facing major regulatory risks?

Absolutely.

Healthcare will always be influenced by politics, reimbursement policies, and government programs.

The question isn't whether risks exist.

It's whether today's valuation already reflects many of them.

Why does institutional ownership matter?

Institutions collectively own roughly 93.5% of Elevance.

That doesn't guarantee success, but it suggests many long-term professional investors continue to believe in the business despite recent sector headwinds.

Is ELV expensive after its recent rally?

In our opinion, no.

Forward earnings multiples remain below many large-cap peers despite improving operational performance and higher guidance.

Could shares still decline?

Certainly.

Even attractive businesses experience volatility.

Successful investing isn't about eliminating risk.

It's about improving the odds.

⚡ Quick Take / TL;DR

✅ Follow-up to our July 2025 bullish thesis.

✅ Shares have appreciated roughly 25.7%.

✅ CEO Gail Boudreaux purchased over $1 million of stock.

✅ Another director also recently bought shares.

✅ Institutions continue owning roughly 93.5% of the company.

✅ Earnings beat expectations.

✅ Full-year guidance increased.

✅ Valuation remains attractive.

✅ Risks remain real—but appear increasingly reflected in today's share price.

FUNStock Index™: 8.2 / 10

🌍 Food for Thought: The Cross-Hub Connection

Healthcare investing ultimately isn't about quarterly earnings.

It's about people.

Every breakthrough drug...

Every virtual consultation...

Every improved care pathway...

Every better pharmacy network...

Every smarter insurance model...

Represents an attempt—however imperfect—to help people live longer, healthier, and more productive lives.

That doesn't make every healthcare company a great investment.

Nor does it excuse inefficiencies throughout the system.

But it does remind us that behind every earnings report lies something much larger than financial statements.

Health remains one of the few assets that compounds alongside wealth.

Protect both wisely.

👤 About the Author

Frédéric Marsanne is the founder of FUNanc1al—part market analyst, part storyteller, part accidental comedian.

A longtime investor, entrepreneur, and venture-builder across technology, biotech, and fintech, he combines rigorous research with behavioral finance and a touch of humor to help readers laugh, learn, live better lives, and invest a little wiser.

When he isn't decoding insider purchases or poking fun at earnings calls, he's building Cl1Q, writing fiction, painting, or discovering new passions to FUNalize.

📝 Editorial Note

Every FUNanc1al article is grounded in human research, analysis, and editorial judgment. Modern AI tools may assist with research organization, editing, and presentation, but every opinion, conclusion, rating, and recommendation remains subject to human oversight and responsibility.

To learn more about how we research, write, and review every article, please visit our Editorial Process page.

This article represents a follow-up to our July 19, 2025 analysis of Elevance Health.

One of our goals at FUNanc1al is not merely to publish investment ideas, but to revisit them.

Successful investing isn't about making bold predictions.

It's about continually testing your thesis against new information—and having the discipline to change your mind when the facts change.

In this case, we believe the original thesis remains largely intact.

At FUNanc1al, our objective is not to predict the future with certainty, but to encourage thoughtful analysis, healthy skepticism, long-term thinking, and a smile whenever possible.