unitedhealth s business diversification and positioning within medicare can take the health insurance giant a long way according to morgan stanley analyst erin wright switched her top pick to unitedhealth from cigna in the health care facilities and managed care space wright is overweight on unitedhealth and has a price target of 587 which implies the stock could advance 139 over the next year from where it ended mondays session while we still remain constructive on cigna  we see this as a unique buying opportunity for industry leader unitedhealth she said in a note to clients tuesday wright said she favors companies with more diversified business models that can better weather potential headwinds amid rising concerns related to the pbm transparency act and the potential for a recession she said theres likely no more diversified managed care company than unitedhealth which has around 44 of its earnings related to health insurance while about 56 of earnings are tied to subsidiary optum in the 56 no individual health insurance segment comprises more than 16 of earnings she said and within optums 56 share she said earnings are evenly split between the companys health care prescription and technology arms optumhealth specifically has helped drive strong differentiation in longterm earnings growth compared with peers wright said she noted that unitedhealths earnings were closer to 90 from health insurance and 10 from optum 10 year ago competitive positioning within medicare advantage which unitedhealth has will be chiefly important heading into 2024 with lower rates expected wright said medicare advantage provides a way to get benefits from the a and b parts of medicare she said companies with higherquality plans such as unitedhealth as well as humana and alignment  should be poised to see strong membership growth in this period companies with already struggling plans on the other hand should see their outlook worsen she said between 20 and 30 of unitedhealths medicare advantage share is currently tied to optumcare according to wright she said the company should see improved longterm earnings growth as that number increases the stock has underperformed the broader market this year slipping 28 cnbcs michael bloom contributed to this report