Sterne Agee Says Aetna's Growth Prospects Are Strong

Sterne Agee released a company report on Thursday highlighting

. Sterne Agee upgraded Aetna from Neutral to Buy with a $124 price target. Analyst Brian Wright wrote, "We see Aetna as the best positioned within the large-cap health plan space for investors to be positioned to take advantage of a defensive sector with little European exposure that also has reasonable growth prospects." Aetna currently has 55 percent of the Health segment premiums in the commercial business. While there is a concern over new Medicaid members leaving existing health plans, Aetna has a conservative reserving position that analysts believe minimizes this risk. Aetna closed Wednesday at $107.48.