Healthcare Stocks Drop as Medicare Proposal Falls Short; GM Surprises with Strong Earnings
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: 2d ago
0mins
Source: CNBC
- Healthcare Stocks Decline: Medical insurance stocks fell sharply after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposed a mere 0.09% increase in 2027 Medicare Advantage payment rates, significantly below the expected 4-6%, leading to a 15% drop in shares of UnitedHealth and Humana, while CVS Health slid nearly 13%.
- GM's Strong Earnings: General Motors reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings and a 2026 outlook that surpassed analyst forecasts, resulting in a more than 4% increase in stock price, alongside a 20% quarterly dividend hike and a $6 billion stock buyback program.
- Boeing's Positive Revenue: Boeing's fourth-quarter revenue reached $23.95 billion, exceeding the $22.6 billion expected by analysts, which boosted its stock by 2%, with the CEO expressing optimism about future prospects.
- UPS Beats Expectations: United Parcel Service reported fourth-quarter earnings of $2.38 per share on revenues of $24.48 billion, both surpassing analyst expectations, leading to a 3.6% increase in stock price.
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Analyst Views on CRM
Wall Street analysts forecast CRM stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for CRM is 326.95 USD with a low forecast of 223.00 USD and a high forecast of 405.00 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.
42 Analyst Rating
31 Buy
10 Hold
1 Sell
Moderate Buy
Current: 227.960
Low
223.00
Averages
326.95
High
405.00
Current: 227.960
Low
223.00
Averages
326.95
High
405.00
About CRM
Salesforce, Inc. is a provider of customer relationship management (CRM) technology. The Company helps organizations of any size reimagine their business for the world of artificial intelligence (AI). With Agentforce, its platform, organizations can bring humans together with AI agents to drive customer success on one deeply unified platform. With the Salesforce platform, it delivers a single source of truth, connecting customer data with integrated AI across systems, apps and devices to help companies sell, service, market and conduct commerce from anywhere. Agentforce is a new layer of the Salesforce platform that enables companies to build and deploy AI agents that can respond to inputs, make decisions and take action autonomously across business functions. Agentforce includes a suite of customizable agents for use across sales, service, marketing and commerce. Datablazer is a data-driven innovator, which leverages the Company’s platform to unlock insights and drive decisions.
About the author
Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
Salesforce 2025 Stock Review and AI Strategy
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- AI Platform Launch: At the Dreamforce event, Salesforce unveiled Agentforce 360, focusing on agentic AI that actively performs tasks, setting a new annual revenue target of $60 billion by fiscal 2030, marking a strategic shift in the company's AI direction.
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Software Stocks Plunge, Microsoft Faces Challenges
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