At his June 24 White House town hall meeting on health care, President Obama addressed the CEO of Aetna, Ronald Williams, and, before a national ABC News television audience, said, "Aetna is a well-managed company and I am confident that your shareholders are going to do well."
Yesterday, the Aetna CEO, Mr. Williams, "cut its full-year earnings forecast for the second time in two months," the Bloomberg wire reports, adding that the CEO called the company's quarterly results "disappointing across many dimensions" and that the CEO said the company had "not adapted quickly enough to a changing environment."
The Bloomberg article said that Aetna is "the second-worst performer this year among the six stocks in the Standard & Poor's 500 managed care index," with the stock down 9.8% year to date. The overall S&P 500 index is up about 10.3% year to date. We'll keep an eye on Aetna going forward, and we wouldn't want to make too much of a stock's or a company's performance over a short-term period. But it will be interesting to see if any class-action lawyers try to go after Mr. Obama on behalf of shareholders who bought the stock on Mr. Obama's advice and are disappointed in their investment returns.
