Stephens analyst Scott Fidel noted that the managed care group has sharply underperformed the S&P 500 over the last month amid "political rhetoric" around point-of-sale drug rebates and Medicare for all policy proposals, though he believes the issues facing the sector right now "seem modest in comparison" to the "dark days of 2008-2010." While recent Medicare for all proposals have rattled investors, "they will face enormous uphill battles," Fidel tells investors. Hospital stocks have outperformed MCOs year-to-date, but the group declined about 9% yesterday and underperformed the MCO group, which Fidel attributes to acknowledgement by industry bellwether UnitedHealth (UNH) of the significant disruptive nature of Medicare for all, which may have sparked additional fears, as well as one less calendar day being called out by UnitedHealth as benefiting Q1 MLRs and Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ) earnings call commentary on declining sequential hospital admissions from Q4. Publicly traded companies in the hospital space include Community Health (CYH), HCA Healthcare (HCA), LifePoint (LPNT), Tenet (THC) and Universal Health (UHS). Publicly traded companies in the managed care space include Anthem (ANTM), CVS Health (CVS), Centene (CNC), Cigna (CI), Health Net (HNT), Humana (HUM), Molina Healthcare (MOH), UnitedHealth (UNH) and WellCare (WCG).

Deutsche Bank analyst George Hill raised the firm's price target on UnitedHealth to $562 from $545 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. The company reported a Q1 earnings beat with many moving pieces caused by the cyberattack on Change Healthcare, which left earnings quality and guidance up to investor interpretation, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm sees the full impact of the hack, as well as conservatism around cost trend and utilization would impact UnitedHealth earnings by only 2% for the full year.

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).