Health Insurers Rise On Humana Inc. Merger Report

Health insurers were generally higher Friday on a report that Humana Inc.

hired advisors to consider a sale. http://www.wsj.com/articles/humana-considers-sale-of-company-1432919621 Humana tapped Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to evaluate potential offers from Cigna Corp.

and Aetna Inc.

, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited "people familiar with the matter." Humana gained more than 17 percent to $209.31; Cigna was up 5.6 percent at $141.57 recently and Aetna changed hands at $118.30, up about 1.7 percent. Humana Chief Executive Bruce D. Broussard reportedly declined to discuss mergers with Bloomberg earlier this month. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-29/humana-shares-spike-after-report-health-insurer-working-on-sale "I do think the industry will consolidate," Broussard told Bloomberg. Humana's move could touch off a widely expected wave of mergers in the industry, according to the Journal report. Humana, which insures mostly Medicare customers, has a current market capitalization of about $31.7 billion versus about $36.39 billion for Cigna and $41.66 billion for Aetna. WellCare Health Plans Inc.

, also focused on government health insurance but with a market cap of only about $3.77 billion, gained nearly 4.9 percent recently to $86.45. Centene Corp.

, with a market cap of about $8.96 billion, rose about 3.7 percent Friday afternoon to $75.07. Anthem Inc.

shares increased more than 2 percent while UnitedHealth Group Inc.

picked up nearly as much. Other health insurance concerns rose by lesser amounts.