Managed Care Stocks Continue Downward Spiral
MANASQUAN, NJ -- September 18, 2008: The stock market plummeted Wednesday taking managed care stocks with it.
The Dow Jones Industrial average dropped 449 points as
nervous investors participated in a sell-off. And the federal
government bailing out American International Group (AIG) with a $85
billion loan did little to calm nervous investors.
The week began with Lehman Brothers declaring bankruptcy
and Merrill Lynch selling itself to Bank of America. Those moves came
on the heals of the government takeover of mortgage giants Freddie Mac
and Fannie Mae.
AIG was tittering on the brink of disaster until the government stepped in.
Since Monday, the market has been in turmoil. On Monday,
the Dow plunged 504 points. While there was a slight rebound on
Tuesday, fear continued to grip investors and Wednesday was another bad
day.
For managed care companies the past three days have been
rough. Their stock prices have declined, though not as dramatic as
financial services companies. Editors from The Executive Report on Managed Care analyzed the stock prices from their close on Friday, Sept. 12 to Wednesday's close.
Last Friday Aetna shares closed at $42.52. Since that
day, the company's shares have dropped $5.12 to $37.40 on Wednesday, a
12 percent drop.
CIGNA has not fared much better closing on Friday at $40.66 and closing yesterday at $35.60, $5.06 or 12 percent lower
Coventry closed last week at $36.15 and closed on Wednesday at $31.49 -- a $4.66 drop or 13 percent.
Humana saw its shares drop $5.36 from $47.72 to 42.36 or 11 percent.
UnitedHealth Group's shares dropped $4.10, from $29.61 to 25.51 or 14 percent.
Wellpoint saw its shares drop the least -- $3.42 from $51.14 to $47.70, or 7 percent.
This latest crisis in the financial markets is fueling a trend among managed care stocks prices. As reported several times in The Executive Report on Managed Care, the price of health insurer stocks have been in a steady decline for over a year.
Address: The Managed Care Information Center, 1913 Atlantic Ave., Suite
200, Manasquan, NJ 08736; (732) 292-1100, www.themcic.com.
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