Cigna, Centene Top Buys as Barclays Newly Rates Health Insurers

Barclays has initiated coverage of 20 companies in the US health care facilities and managed care sector, naming Cigna, Centene among its top overweight stocks and Humana, CVS Health as notable equal-weights.

• Analysts led by Andrew Mok are neutral on the entire sector, leaning positively toward facilities with durable volume growth and managed care organizations that have a differentiated mix of earnings
  • “We are positive on the Individual market, cautious on Medicare Advantage (MA), and modestly optimistic on Medicaid,” the analysts wrote
• More overweight ratings include Acadia Healthcare, Elevance Health, Encompass Health, HCA Healthcare, Tenet Healthcare and UnitedHealth ...