What to Watch When UnitedHealth Reports Wednesday

UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH | UNH Price Prediction) is set to report its most recent quarterly results before the markets open on Wednesday. For the first quarter, analysts are calling for $3.63 in earnings per share (EPS) and $64.33 billion in revenue. In the same period of last year, the managed health care giant said it had $3.73 in EPS and $60.31 billion in revenue.

During the latest quarter, total revenues grew $2.5 billion, or 4.1%, year over year, reflecting balanced, broad-based revenue growth across the businesses.

At that time, UnitedHealthcare revenues increased 4.2% year over year to $48.2 billion. Third-quarter 2019 earnings from operations at UnitedHealthcare grew by 16.7%, driven by revenue growth and strong cost disciplines.

Also, Optum revenues grew by 8.0% year over year to $29.8 billion, and earnings from operations advanced 11.1%.

Here’s what analysts are saying ahead of the report:

• SunTrust Banks has a Buy rating with a $340 price target.
• Barclays has a Buy rating with a $322 price target.
• Morgan Stanley has an Overweight rating with a $281 price target.
• Deutsche Bank has a Buy rating with a $308 price target.

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Excluding Tuesday’s move, UnitedHealth had outperformed the broad markets with a pullback of about 10% year to date. In the past 52 weeks, the stock was actually up 12% year to date.

UnitedHealth stock traded up about 3% on Tuesday, at $272.00 in a 52-week range of $187.72 to $306.71. The consensus price target is $318.88.

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