Leerink analyst Ana Gupte says yesterday's public hearing on the proposed merger between Anthem (ANTM) and Cigna (CI) by the California Department of Insurance contained no surprises on the anti-trust scrutiny. The analyst believes the merger is likely to receive approval from the Department of Insurance, but she points out the Department of Managed Care has primary anti-trust authority. After conducting an analysis of likely divestitures, the analyst raised her expectation of the deal closing to 70% from 60%. Gupte's base case assumes divestitures of 2.75M lives in Commercial Self Insured and 110,000 lives in Commercial Fully Insured. She views UnitedHealth (UNH) and Aetna (AET) as available to pick up the divested lives. The analyst reiterates Outperform ratings on both Cigna and Anthem, and calls Cigna a top pick.

Notable gainers among liquid option names this morning include Genuine Parts (GPC) $159.09 +15.03, Globe Life (GL) $66.97 +3.74, Anthem (ELV) $532.10 +23.13, United Continental (UAL) $50.59 +1.84, and UnitedHealth (UNH) $494.80 +15.81.

Unusual total active option classes on open include: Wrap Technologies (WRAP), AstraZeneca (AZN), JetBlue (JBLU), United Continental (UAL), Taiwan Semi (TSM), Nokia (NOK), EBay (EBAY), Maplebear Inc (CART), Airbnb (ABNB), and UnitedHealth (UNH).

RBC Capital analyst Ben Hendrix lowered the firm's price target on UnitedHealth to $555 from $596 but keeps an Outperform rating on the shares. The company reported a "better than feared" Q1, but the debate over utilization trends is expected to persist through the first half as excess reserves skew the medical care ratio picture, the analyst tells investors in a research note. RBC also notes that its added caution reflects UnitedHealth's "reduced claims visibility".

Get caught up quickly on the top news and calls moving stocks with these five Top Five lists.  1... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

Get caught up quickly on the top news and calls moving stocks with these five Top Five lists. 1... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

Notable gainers among liquid option names this morning include UnitedHealth (UNH) $475.73 +30.10, Super Micro (SMCI) $914.90 +32.15, Humana (HUM) $324.54 +9.90, Morgan Stanley (MS) $89.42 +2.43, and Cencora Inc (COR) $238.39 +4.18.

UnitedHealth is up 6.1%, or $27.39 to $473.02.

Check out this morning's top movers from around Wall Street, compiled by The Fly. HIGHER - Macatawa... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here