UnitedHealth Group (UNH-NYSE, $359.27) Buys Change HealthCare. The Optum Division of UNH May Soon Represent up to $120 Billion of Aggregate Market Value.

Optum may generate as much as $2.9 billion of earnings for UNH in 2021. Change Healthcare is forecast to produce an additional $500 million of earnings post purchase as the debts will be either paid off or refinanced at UNH corporate rates. As this division will be folded into the Optum Health, the combined earnings could exceed $3.4 billion in 2021 and might close in on $4 billion in 2022. Such an earnings contribution could readily command a $120 billion valuation, were Optum a stand alone entity.