Express Scripts (NASDAQ:ESRX) is the largest stand-alone pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) in the United States, helping health benefit providers improve access to (and the affordability of) prescription drugs. Negotiations with Anthem, Express Scripts’ largest customer, hit an impasse early in the quarter. Anthem elected to bring the details of the disagreement public at a widely attended industry conference in January, providing the investment community a lens into how far the two companies were apart on the economics of their existing contract. Since then, Anthem has also filed a lawsuit against Express Scripts. While we hope a mutually agreeable solution will eventually be achieved, it remains possible (some believe likely) that Anthem will choose not to renew its contract with Express in 2019. We have run scenarios encompassing a range of different outcomes, and we believe Express Scripts’ shares are undervalued in all but the most dire. We continue to monitor contract-related developments and are otherwise heartened by improved execution across the other 84% of Express Scripts’ enterprise.
From Wallace Weitz (Trades, Portfolio)'s Weitz Value Fund 1st quarter 2016 commentary.
