JP Morgan Still Likes Express Scripts After Meeting With Management

• Shares of Express Scripts Holding Company ESRX have been volatile in 2015 and are up 1.33 percent year-to-date.
• JP Morgan’s Lisa C. Gill maintained an Overweight rating on the company, with a price target of $105.
• The company appears to be competitively positioned to take advantage of various opportunities over the next few years, Gill mentioned.

Recent meetings with Express Scripts top management, including President and incoming CEO Tim Wentworth, CFO Eric Slusser and VP Investor Relations Ben Bier, revealed that the company continues to be very optimistic about its competitive positioning.

Express Scripts mentioned that significant opportunities existed over the next few years, with 2016 and 2017 likely to be the strong years. Express Scripts’ offering is aligned with payors’ needs and, although the big payors may get distracted by the company’s integration efforts, the remaining markets offer good opportunity, analyst Lisa Gill mentioned.

Express Scripts intends to use its vast data for exploring the opportunity for big data analytics in the field of population health environment. Gill believes that Express Scripts is well positioned and capable of managing overall healthcare costs through proper pharmaceutical utilization.

The company’s management intends to adopt a disciplined approach around M&A, while returning excess cash to the shareholders, Gill added.