UnitedHealth posted a better-than-expected returns in the final quarter of 2024, but returns fell short as challenges like Medicare capital cuts and a Medicaid enrollment drop hurt.
Shares of the health worry giant slid early Thursday after it released its first financial update since the brazen shooting of one of its executives outside a recent York City hotel touched a national nerve and brought to the surface American frustration over health worry access.
UnitedHealth earned $5.5 billion in the quarter, as adjusted results totaled $6.81 per distribute. The corporation’s returns climbed about 7% to $100.8 billion.
Analysts expected returns of $6.73 per distribute in the fourth quarter on $101.6 billion in returns, according to the data firm FactSet.
UnitedHealth operates the country’s largest health insurer, UnitedHealthcare, which covers more than 49 million people in the United States. It also operates a large pharmacy advantage manager that runs prescription drug coverage and a growing business that delivers worry and provides technical back.
UnitedHealth’s Medicaid enrollment tumbled by about 400,000 people compared with the previous year’s quarter as states went through a lengthy procedure to determine who was still eligible for the government program after the COVID-19 pandemic.
There was an boost in prescriptions for expensive specialty drugs and other expense pressures, the corporation reported, pushing net returns down slightly to $5.54 billion in the quarter.
UnitedHealth’s packed-year returns sank about 36% to $14.4 billion.
UnitedHealth, based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, surprised Wall Street early last year with soaring medical costs in the final quarter of 2023. Weeks later, the corporation’s transformation Healthcare business was hit with a massive cyberattack that wound up costing it more than $1 billion.
Then in early December, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot as he walked to the corporation’s annual investor conference in mid-town Manhattan. A 26-year-ancient suspect, Luigi Mangione, faces federal and state charges in connection with Thompson’s death.
Prosecutors have said Mangione, who was not a UnitedHealthcare customer, was carrying a notebook expressing hostility toward the health insurance industry and especially wealthy executives when he was arrested.
The shooting gave rise to an outpouring of grievances about insurance companies. A survey conducted a few weeks after the shooting found that most Americans depend health insurance profits or coverage denials bear some responsibility for Thompson’s death.
Shares of UnitedHealth, a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, sank after Thompson’s shooting and fell about 4% on the year.
The distribute had rallied so far in 2025 before falling 3% to $525 in premarket buying and selling Thursday.
