Aetna (AET), Humana $37B Deal Rejected, CNBC's Faber Says

The Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit to block Aetna's (AET) acquisition of Humana (HUM), CNBC's David Faber announced today.
By Lindsay Rittenhouse ,

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The Department of Justice rejected Aetna's  (AET) $37 billion Humana (HUM) acquisition bid, CNBC's David Faber reported on "Squawk on the Street" Thursday.

"The DOJ has filed [antitrust] lawsuits to block [the deal] and also has filed lawsuits to block Anthem's (ANTM) plan to buy Cigna (CI)," Faber noted.

Health benefit company Anthem announced plans to acquire Cigna for $48 billion last July.

"The expectation has been for some time that the DOJ was likely to block Anthem and Cigna and probably likely to block Humana and Aetna," Faber said.

The health companies could go to court to fight this decision and Faber expects them to do so.

Investors have been anticipating both of the health benefit companies' deals to be rejected because regulators have raised concern that they will deter competition in the Medicare Advantage market.

Shares of Aetna are rising by 1.48% to $118.21 and Humana stock is slipping by 0.43% to $157.73 this morning.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings rated Aetna as a "buy" with a score of A+.

This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, attractive valuation levels, good cash flow from operations, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and solid stock price performance. TheStreet Ratings feels its strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had sub par growth in net income.

You can view the full analysis from the report here: AET

TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author.

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