Wells Fargo analyst Peter Costa left the investor-day meeting of Molina Healthcare on Thursday feeling bullish on the managed-care firm. In a note out on Friday, he boosted his rating on Molina to Outperform from Market Perform. Costa raised his price target to $177 from $139, noting opportunities for growth in Texas.
UnitedHealth Group expects its healthcare delivery business OptumCare to be a $100 billion-a-year business by 2028. The OptumCare business already employs or works with 38,000 doctors. At the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference, analyst Lance Wilkes asked UnitedHealth Group executives how the company plans to get there. The executives said the plan includes building upon the footprint the company established over the last decade.
As the L.A. Times’ editorial board noted Tuesday, one of the biggest fears among consumers is that if they go into an emergency room in desperate need of treatment, they’ll leave with a hefty bill from an anesthesiologist, a surgeon or some other healthcare provider who’s not in their insurer’s network. It’s a reasonable fear; one recent study showed that 14% to 20% of ER visits ended in that kind of nasty surprise.
Bon Secours Mercy Health hospital system is selling a majority stake in its billing-software company to private-equity firm Golden Gate Capital in a deal that people familiar with the matter valued at roughly $1.2 billion—the latest transaction involving a health-care back-office technology firm.
Southern California health care business KPC Health has acquired Promise Hospital of Baton Rouge, a former subsidiary of Promise Healthcare, a Boca Raton, Florida-based hospital business. Promise Healthcare Group’s hospital network across Louisiana was acquired several months after it filed for bankruptcy protection in 2018.
Asked to name 20 stocks poised to move in the next six months, analysts at UBS tapped an alcoholic-beverages company for a loss and pegged a health-care services provider as the biggest likely gainer. In a Wednesday note, UBS analysts listed 20 stocks they thought were set to move dramatically.