UnitedHealth Group is sticking to its profit outlook for the year and says it won’t seek any federal assistance to make it through a coronavirus outbreak that has hobbled much of the economy.
The coronavirus could hit UnitedHealth from several angles. The company runs a health insurance business that covers nearly 49 million people, mostly in the United States.
Its Optum segment also runs one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit management operations as well as a growing number of clinics and urgent care and surgery centers.
UnitedHealth said the coronavirus hit the U.S. market too late in the first quarter to have much of an impact on those results.
The largest U.S. health insurer reported first-quarter net income of $3.38 billion, or $3.52 per share. Adjusted per share earnings were $3.72, easily beating Wall Street projections for $3.64, according to a survey of industry analysts by Zacks Investment Research.
Revenue was $64.42 billion.
UnitedHealth maintained per-share profit expectations for the year of between $16.25 and $16.55, the same forecast it laid out late last year.
Analysts expect, on average, earnings of $16.21 per share on about $260.84 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.
Many companies have withdrawn financial forecasts for the year because the pandemic has made most of them worthless. UnitedHealth said Wednesday that it will continue to evaluate the impact of the global pandemic on all of its business throughout the year.
Shares of UnitedHealth Group Inc., based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, are up almost 3% before the opening bell Wednesday.
The stock had climbed 18% in 2019, with the price reaching $300 for the first time in late December. It hit an all-time high price of $306.72 in February before shedding more than $100 in value over the next month as the broader market tanked.
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A portion of this story was 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