Posted on 04/17/2025 5:52:29 AM PDT by NautiNurse
UnitedHealth Group’s stock nosedived Thursday morning after earnings fell short of Wall Street’s expectations, and the healthcare giant substantially downgraded its projected results for 2025, citing problems in its Medicare business.
There were steep declines in share prices across the insurance industry, as investors reacted to the bellwether company’s unexpected financial woes. In premarket trading, shares of UnitedHealth fell more than 20%. Meanwhile Humana shares dropped more than 13%, while Elevance was down nearly 11% and CVS fell almost 8%.
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UnitedHealth slashed its guidance for the full year, to a range of $26 to $26.50 per share in adjusted earnings. Its prior projection, issued in December and reaffirmed in January, had been for adjusted earnings of $29.50 to $30 per share.
The company cited higher-than-expected medical costs in its Medicare business, an issue that has affected the entire industry over the last year but had previously not been as significant at UnitedHealth, parent of the largest U.S. health insurer.
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(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
The drop is worth several hundred points in the DOW, which is why the DOW is down so much while the S&P 500 is up!
Well, the shooting may have had an impact on policies on benefit payouts, resulting in the lower profits.
Meeting contractual obligations comes with a cost.
The UNH drop takes over 700 points off the DOW while the broad market is up.
Luigi The Murderer and his fans are no doubt celebrating.
The PE ratio has been in the upper 30s, suggesting to me that the stock has been overpriced. This drop brings it down to more reasonable levels, but not historic levels.
Don’t forget Senator Grassley opened an inquiry back in February to examine United Healthcare’s Medicare billing practices.
Saw that. We'll see how the twitchy finger traders react in a few minutes.
Yes, the PE is high by historic standards. UNH still has a lot of room to fall.
I guess this is what happens when Trump and his team start taking illegal aliens and fake citizens off the medicare and medicaid feeding trough.
The health insurance companies just lost a lot of customers.
Actually, the DOJ launched an investigation into United Healthcare’s Medicare billing practices in February. UNH patients appear to have more health issues and obscure diagnoses greater than expected, resulting in higher Medicare payments.
SEIU
Time to layoff union members
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