Federal prosecutors in New York have charged Luigi Mangione with murder, stalking, and terrorism-related offenses in the December 4 killing of UnitedHealth (UNH) CEO Brian Thompson. Mangione allegedly shot Thompson outside the Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan, where Thompson was attending an investor day for UnitedHealth Group. Mangione was arrested five days later in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after a tip about a suspicious person at a McDonald’s.
Mangione has agreed to extradition to New York and appeared Thursday in a Pennsylvania courtroom before being transferred to a U.S. District Court in Manhattan. He is facing both federal charges and state charges in the Manhattan Supreme Court, including first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism and two counts of second-degree murder, one of which is linked to terrorism.
In addition to the murder charges, Mangione was indicted on multiple counts of criminal possession of a weapon. Following his court appearance in Pennsylvania, Mangione was flown to New York, where he will face the charges against him.
Americans Voice Their Frustrations About Flawed Healthcare System
The murder of Thompson has caused many Americans to speak out in frustration about how flawed the healthcare insurance system has become. This has led President-elect Donald Trump to criticize pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and actually blame them for high drug prices in the U.S. He even went as far as to say that he will “knock out the middleman” to bring down drug costs, which has caused shares of companies like UNH to fall.
Is UNH Stock a Buy?
Despite the growing dissatisfaction among the public, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on UNH stock based on 18 Buys, one Hold, and zero Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 14% drop in its share price over the past month, the average UNH price target of $624.63 per share implies 26.8% upside potential.
