The fourth-quarter earnings of Minnetonka-based leading healthcare company UnitedHealth Group stood at $2.52 per share, 5.4% more than the Zacks Consensus Estimate. However, just one and a half months into a new fiscal year, the company’s shares have lost about 7.5%. This is in contrast to the company’s performance last fiscal. As the year progresses, it is to be seen if the company will bounce back or this southbound trend will continue.
- In 2020, UnitedHealth Group’s revenues of $257.1 billion improved 6.2% year over year. Per share earnings of $16.88 jumped 11.7% year over year. This was more than previously provided guidance of $16.50-$16.75.
- Revenues worth $50.3 billion in the October-December quarter were up 4.4% year over year, thanks to a major growth in serving community and senior programs.
- Deferral of care owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and return of the health insurance tax saw the 2020 medical care ratio of 79.1% improve 340 basis points from 2019.
- UnitedHealth Group’s revenues from Optum jumped 20.5% year over year to $35.9 billion. It was due to healthy contributions from the sub-segments of OptumHealth (up 31.9%), OptumInsight (up 1.7%) and OptumRx (up 17.8%). Earnings from operations rose 3.3% year over year to $3.1 billion.
- In the last quarter, the company served 48.44 million people, down 0.7 million year over year. Its cash and short-term investments at the end of the fiscal year stood at $19.8 billion, up 38.9% from the level as of 2019-end.