LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Insurance giant UnitedHealth reinstated FY profit guidance on Tuesday as it highlighted the challenges facing the market, including rising medical costs.
UnitedHealth said FY earnings per share were expected to be no less than $16.00 each, nearly half of the $29.50-$30.00 per share it had initially forecast in December and short of analysts' estimates of $18.00-$20.00. However, UnitedHealth expects to return to earnings growth in FY26 as it looks to strengthen operating disciplines.

Q2 profits also failed to meet expectations, with adjusted profits of $4.08 per share missing Wall Street estimates of $4.48 per share. Quarterly revenues grew to $111.6bn, up $12.8bn year-on-year.

UnitedHealth stated medical cost trends in its Medicare Advantage plans for older adults were expected to run at roughly 7.5% in FY25, higher than expectations of just over 5%, and anticipates that these trends will continue to accelerate to almost 10% in FY26.

UnitedHealth's quarterly medical loss ratio stood at 89.4%, higher than the 88.58% expected by analysts.

As of 1415 BST, UnitedHealth shares were down 3.59% in pre-market trading at $272.00 each.





Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

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