The buy side says: “John’s is the definitive voice on managed care.”
In a year when health care reform moved from a relatively dim prospect to a fait accompli, the buy side turned to seven-time sector champion John Rex of J.P. Morgan to understand what Washington would do to the insurance industry — or even whether managed care would survive at all. “This was the ultimate binary event year, but he gave us all the scenarios on the way in and ultimately made the right call,” explains one London-based fund manager. In November the 48-year-old analyst decided that the sector was no longer in danger of being legislated out of existence and that Cigna Corp. of Philadelphia looked undervalued at $30. President Obama signed the final bill some four months later, and by the end of August, Cigna’s shares had advanced 7.4 percent, to $32.22. During the same period the Standard & Poor’s 500 managed health care index gained 3.8 percent.
