Anthem IPO Gets Boost of Confidence

Investors stepped up Monday to bid aggressively for an insurance company’s initial public stock offering, the second well-received offering in that sector in two weeks.

Underwriters for health insurer Anthem Inc. boosted the size of the company’s IPO for a second time and sold 48 million shares at $36 apiece, raising $1.73 billion.

The stock will begin trading today on the NYSE under the ticker symbol ATH.

Underwriter Goldman Sachs Group on Monday added 8 million shares to the deal, after raising it by 11.4 million shares Friday.

Investors last week snapped up $1.85 billion worth of shares in the IPO of life insurer Principal Financial Group (PFG).

Principal went public at $18.50 a share and rose as high as $22.20. The stock eased 30 cents to $21.20 on Monday.

Investing in Indianapolis-based Anthem, a profitable company, is seen as a safe way to play health-care insurance, analysts said. Anthem provides health-care benefits to 7.5 million people in eight states through Blue Cross.