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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowStock prices of health insurers, including WellPoint Inc., likely will rise now that Tom Daschle has withdrawn as President Barack Obama’s nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services. At least that’s the opinion of one health care stock analyst, Les Funtleyder of Miller Tabak & Co. in New York.
“In our judgment this development effectively terminates any chance of health care reform in 2009,” Funtleyder wrote in an investor note this morning. “Given the time it will take to choose and vet a new HHS secretary, it appears not likely that person will be able to impose meaningful change in the near-term.”
Funtleyder said the environment for all health insurers is better now “due to maintenance of the status quo” and because the uncertainty about health care reform, which depressed health insurers’ shares, has now been removed.
As a result, Funtleyder raised his price targets on the two health insurers he covers, Louisville-based Humana Inc. and Minnetonka, Minn.-based UnitedHealth Group. He does not cover Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc.
Most investors had the same idea. Share prices of major health insurers already rose yesterday afternoon after news of Daschle’s withdrawal broke in Washington, D.C. Humana’s rose the most, 6 percent, to $42.54 per share.
WellPoint shares surged 3.3 percent, to $44.27, yesterday. They were holding steady at $44.30 in late-morning trading.
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