Associated Press October
15, 2019
UnitedHealth
Group hiked its 2019 forecast again after the addition of hundreds of clinics
to its health care services business contributed to a better-than-expected
third quarter.
The
nation's largest health insurance provider said Tuesday that it now expects
full-year earnings of between $14.90 and $15 per share after previously raising
its forecast in July.
Analysts
expect earnings of $14.83 per share, according to FactSet.
UnitedHealth
Group Inc. provides health insurance for more than 49 million people but also
has been expanding well beyond that focus through its Optum segment. In June,
the company completed a $5 billion deal to buy DaVita Medical Group clinics, as
part of its push to move deeper into providing care.
Insurers
say they are doing this to cut costs and make sure that people receive good
care.
The
company's OptumHealth revenue jumped 34% in the quarter to $8.1 billion, also
fueled by an expansion of behavioral health services.
UnitedHealth's
Optum segment also runs one of the nation's largest pharmacy benefit management
businesses and provides other services. Operating earnings from Optum jumped
20% in the quarter to $2.4 billion.
Operating
earnings from the company's health insurance side grew about 4% to $2.7
billion.
Medical
costs, by far the company's largest expense, grew 8% compared to last year's
quarter and topped $39 billion, but UnitedHealth said that trend remained
within expectations.
Overall
the insurer's earnings jumped 11% in the quarter to $3.54 billion. Earnings,
adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were $3.88 per share, which is 8 cents
better than Wall Street was expecting, according to Zacks Investment Research.
Total
revenue grew about 7% to $60.35 billion, also topping projections.
Shares
of the Minnetonka, Minnesota, company climbed nearly 2% to $224.53 in early
trading. But the stock was down about 11% so far this year, as of Monday's
close even though the Dow Jones industrial average — of which UnitedHealth is a
component — has climbed nearly 15 percent.
Shares
of insurers and pharmacy benefit managers have bounced around this year, as
some Democratic presidential candidates have renewed a push for a
"Medicare for All" plan that could replace private coverage and as
Congressional committees investigated soaring drug costs.
Follow
Tom Murphy on Twitter: @thpmurphy
Elements
of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap)
using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on UNH
at https://www.zacks.com/ap/UNH
No comments:
Post a Comment