What happened
Now this is the way to start a week on the stock market. The share price of top health insurer UnitedHealth Group (UNH 1.61%) climbed 4.6% higher on some encouraging news from the federal government plus a very positive analyst note. As a result, the stock convincingly beat the 0.4% bump of the S&P 500 index on the day.
So what
Much of UnitedHealth's Monday momentum came from the Biden administration's completion of a new set of rules for Medicare this past Friday.
While the administration still aims to reduce overbilling through the program's Medicare Advantage private healthcare system, the new rules did not go as far as many in the health insurance sector had feared.
Under Medicare Advantage, private-sector insurers receive fixed payments from Medicare. The insurers, in turn, become responsible for the healthcare expenses of the enrolled parties.
Now what
Meanwhile, the prognosticator thumbs-up came from influential bank and eager stock tracker Bank of America. On the kickoff of this year's calendar second quarter, the lender released its top 10 stock ideas for the period. Happily, UnitedHealth was one of the buys on that list.
The analyst team at Bank of America selected a mix of prominent companies and lesser-known titles. Its 10 ideas comprised eight enthusiastic buys -- including UnitedHealth -- and a pair of sells. UnitedHealth was the only healthcare insurance company on the list. It wasn't, however, the sole insurer -- Progressive (PGR 2.35%) also made Bank of America's top eight.
