Shares of UnitedHealth Group Inc. UNH, +0.26% surged 1.6% in morning trading Tuesday, enough to pace the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s DJIA, -0.55% gainers, after the health care services and benefits company missed out on the deal to buy home-health provider Signify Health Inc. SGFY, +1.15%, which is currently valued at $6.81 billion.
UnitedHealth stock’s price gain of $8.18 was adding about 54 points to the Dow’s price, while the Dow was up 35 points, or 0.1%. Earlier Tuesday, CVS Health Corp. CVX, -0.46% announced a deal to buy Signify in a deal valued at about $8 billion, following a recent report from The Wall Street Journal that CVS, UnitedHealth and Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -1.10% were in a bidding war for Signify. UnitedHealth’s stock has gained 4.5% over the past three months while the Dow has lost 4.8%.