Five Healthcare Plan Providers You Should Buy Now

1. Aetna Inc (NYSE:AET)

Investors with Long Positions (as of June 30): 80

Aggregate Value of Investors’ Holdings (as of June 30): $4.03 Billion

Boasting returns of almost 20% during the second quarter, it’s no surprise that Aetna Inc (NYSE:AET) turned out be one of the most popular stocks among hedge funds not only from the health insurance space, but overall as well. The number of hedge funds covered by us that disclosed a stake in the company increased by 30 during the quarter, while the aggregate value of investors’ holdings more than doubled in the same time frame. Although Aetna Inc (NYSE:AET)’s stock dropped by almost 10% in the days following the company’s July 3 announcement that it will be acquiring Humana Inc (NYSE:HUM) in a $34 billion deal, it has held on to the levels above $110 quite well since then. Along with Anthem CEO defending the Cigna deal, Aetna’s CEO, Mark Bertolini, also appeared before the Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing in Washington on September 22 to defend the Humana deal against the same allegations of creating a competitive imbalance. On September 18,  Aetna’s stock was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ by analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald, who also increased their price target to $140 from $100. Jacob Gottlieb‘s Visium Asset Management multiplied its stake in the company more than 13 times during the April-June period to 1.23 million shares.

Disclosure: None