Analysts expect UnitedHealth to report strong Q4 earnings and revenue growth, indicating a positive outlook for the company.
Minneapolis: UnitedHealth Group is gearing up to release its quarterly earnings report soon. Analysts are predicting earnings of $6.72 per share, which is a nice bump of 9.1% from last year. They also expect revenues to hit around $102.25 billion, marking an 8.3% increase.
Interestingly, the consensus estimate for earnings per share has been slightly adjusted down by 0.7% in the last month. This shows how analysts have been fine-tuning their predictions as the report date approaches.
Before a company shares its earnings, it’s important to pay attention to these estimate changes. They can really influence how investors react to the stock. Studies have shown that there’s a strong link between these revisions and how a stock performs in the short term.
While many investors look at the overall earnings and revenue estimates, digging into the specific metrics that analysts track can provide some valuable insights.
So, let’s take a closer look at what analysts are forecasting for UnitedHealth’s key metrics. They expect ‘Revenues- Products’ to come in at $13.04 billion, which is a solid 15.3% increase from last year.
For ‘Revenues- Services,’ analysts are predicting about $9.37 billion, reflecting a 7.5% year-over-year growth. Meanwhile, ‘Revenues- Premiums’ are expected to reach $78.16 billion, up 6.7% from the previous year.
When it comes to ‘Revenues- Investment and other income,’ the average prediction is around $1.21 billion, which is a 2.3% increase year over year.
Analysts also expect the ‘Medical Care Ratio’ to be around 86.1%, compared to 85% from last year. As for customers, the total for UnitedHealthcare’s commercial segment is estimated to be 29.7 million, up from 27.32 million last year.
For the risk-based commercial customers, the estimate is 8.87 million, which is an increase from 8.12 million in the same quarter last year. The fee-based commercial customers are expected to reach 20.83 million, up from 19.2 million.
In the community and senior segment, analysts predict 19.74 million customers, slightly down from 19.9 million last year. For Medicare Advantage, the estimate is 7.92 million, up from 7.7 million last year.
Lastly, for Medicare Supplement customers, the forecast is 4.33 million, a slight decrease from 4.36 million last year. For Medicare Part D, the estimate is 3.04 million, down from 3.32 million last year.
Over the past month, UnitedHealth shares have held steady, while the broader market has dipped by 2.2%. With a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold), it looks like UNH will perform in line with the market in the near future.
