Hims & Hers, healthcare stocks, BNY: Trending Tickers

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5 hours ago

Novo Nordisk (NVO) ended its weight-loss drug partnership with Hims & Hers (HIMS), sending shares of both companies lower.
UnitedHealth (UNH), CVS (CVS), and Cigna (CI) are in focus as health insurers are set to simplify the authorization process, according to AHIP.
BNY Mellon (BK) is reportedly considering a merger with Northern Trust (NTRS), according to the Wall Street Journal.
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Time now for some of today's trending tickers. We are watching Novo Nordisk, Hims and Hers, Health Insurers, and Bank of New York Melon. First up, Hims and Hers shares plunging after Novo Nordisk says it's ending its partnership with the company that allowed the direct sale of its Wegovy. The pharmaceutical company saying Hims and Hers allegedly failed to follow laws prohibiting mass sales of compounded drugs and accusing the company of deceptive marketing that put patient safety at risk. There you're taking a look at the share price reaction here for both of the companies here. And it's notable because as what we had seen with Hims and Hers, it was certainly an effort by them to ensure that they could have some type of weigh-in on the user demand that they have seen flow into their different products where they had largely looked across some of the patents that expired and knew that they had to be in on the weight loss drug trend as well. And so partnership with Novo Nordisk was significant, but now it also means that you have to comply with some of the service-level agreements or expectations that that company you're partnering with has too.
Yeah, it's been a tough ride for Hims and Her shareholders. I mean, the volatility in that stock has been epic, and it goes from one drug to the next, whether it's ED medication or now weight loss drugs. Uh, they have, you know, so much promise, such a great, loyal user base. It's a fantastic alternative, uh, for people, you know, it's secretive, it's online, it's right your door. Uh, so when this news happened, maybe it was a little bit of an overreaction, but, uh, to see it fall over 20% last I checked, uh, uh, extreme. And, uh, so we have to see what the next step is for them, but this was a big blow to their shareholders, and we'll see how they recover from that.
Yeah, shareholders who've watched the stock actually move higher even with today's move, it seems, move higher year to date, 82%, but this major pullback certainly is going to test some of the mindset around the investment thesis for Hims and Hers. We're going to be continuing to watch that. We're also watching major health insurers signal a move towards simplifying prior authorization requirements for medicines and services. So, America's health insurance plans, an industry organization for insurers, they say that insurance companies will develop standard data and submission requirements by January 1st, 2027. Additionally, major insurers will cut down on claims that require prior authorization by January 1st, 2026 and will make sure authorizations are valid for 90 days if a patient chooses to change insurers during the treatment here. You're seeing shares kind of move in different directions for United Health, which has been facing its own problems over the course of the year. Uh, but then two of the other insurers that we were showing on screen still moving higher here. And the insurance space is undergoing a vast majority of targeted changes, whether that be in how the claims are adjusted and looked through and evaluated, all the way through to the pricing and how the different models in their pricing are carried out as well here. So, a spate of changes that could be coming over the course of this year, which has have given investors a lot to think about with these insurers.
Yeah, it's been the one sector in trouble times that usually does well, and it's been the second worst performing sector year to date. Only discretionary lags, and it's one of two that are down. Uh, we know UNH has had their own troubles. That goes without saying. But the sector itself has been beaten down. Anything that can one help us as, you know, users of these platforms, streamline operations, cut costs down. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's ridiculous. But this is something the Trump administration had talked about for a while. Uh, we just have yet to see some results, and this may not bode well for the insurers themselves, but for the utilizers of those insurances, any anything to streamline operations would be great. So, I don't see an uptake in the sector as a result of something like this, but it's positive progress, at least for, you know, you and I.
Absolutely. And finally here in our trending tickers, we're continuing to track Bank of New York Melon eyeing a potential merger with Northern Trust. This is according to the Wall Street Journal here. Now, the chief executives of Bank of New York Melon and Northern Trust reportedly had at least one conversation, and BNY is considering next steps. BNY had no comment on the report here. A merger between the two companies would create an investment management giant overseeing more than 3 trillion dollars in assets. There you're taking a look at both of these firms. And the larger question upon the industry and the sector at large for banking and financial services is what this means for broader consolidation efforts right now to shore up some of their own operations.
We have been waiting for a story like this to happen for ages. I'm talking 15, 20 years, pre-financial crisis. We've had bank mergers, but what have they been a result of? They've been a result of failures, uh, results of insolvency from some of these smaller banks. We had the regional banking crisis. So for this to start, this is something that we had predicted would happen under the Trump administration, lack of red tape, a lot of regional bank M&A activity. I look at some of these bigger regional banks, the PNCs, the M&Ts, the Regions Financials of the world. Technically, they've broken down trends, and they're looking like they want to reverse. You look at this Northern Trust. Okay, uh, it's trading around 120, 122. I didn't see the last sale. Uh, but its high was January 13th, 2022, of 133, 135 in that range. So if this deal is going to get done, and there's a little smoke usually in these things do get higher and out, I think there's an upside to at least that level to get the deal across the finish line, and the stock has been doing well. So this, to me, is fantastic. And when you have Bank of New York, Bank of New York Melon, first stock to ever trade the New York Stock Exchange, fun fact, BNY. Uh, Alexander Hamilton, he's not involved in this deal, but uh, this is something that investors should be happy about. If you look at the KRE, which is the regional bank sector, very wide swath of them underperforming the BKX, which is, you know, includes some regional, some of the larger banks. Uh, this is something that you may want to take a flyer on because this goes through, this happens, there are going to be a lot of other people having conversations over the few, uh, upcoming months.
It's interesting, and it brings me back to one of the thought processes that we had heard from Torsten Slok of Apollo, the chief economist there, who had put out within his banking sector outlook. Banking sector balance sheets are generally in good shape, credit growth positive driven by lending in large banks, but it does make you consider how many of these banks are trying to make sure that they're diversifying their streams of revenue and their income here, and what could be possibly pushing this deal forward is that thought process from these two major entities.
Without a doubt, and this would put Bank of New York into the Chicago market. You know, they have Pittsburgh with Melon, but, uh, to me, yes, uh, rates have been stable and steady, higher for longer. They've absorbed this, all the banks have. Uh, mortgage market has been kind of tricky. So maybe it's the time for some of these smaller banks to find a larger partner. And you get some of these super regionals joining forces. To me, it makes sense, and we have the administration to back it. So, uh, I think this is something to really keep a close eye on going forward.
Yeah, to your point, potentially larger footprint that we could be seeing here if this goes through. You could scan the QR code below to track the best and worst performing stocks of this session with Yahoo Finance's trending tickers page.