UnitedHealth now has an improved outlook for the year. Its stock is rallying.
By Jaimy Lee
The health-insurance giant raised its profit guidance for the second time this year
UnitedHealth's medical-cost ratio in the second quarter came in lower than expected.
UnitedHealth Group raised its profit guidance for the second time this year in the latest signal that its business is returning to a better place.
The health-insurance giant now expects adjusted net earnings of $19.50 to $20.00 per share in 2026. That's up from the more than $18.25 a share that the company guided for back in April and $17.75 a share at the start of the year.
"This is an impressive beat-and-raise in Q2, which typically dictates the trajectory for the year," Oppenheimer analysts wrote in a note to investors.
UnitedHealth's stock (UNH) was up about 6.3% in premarket trade on Thursday. Its rally helped boost futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM00).
The company reported revenue of $112.0 billion in the second quarter, up from $111.6 billion in the same three months of last year and beating the FactSet estimate of $110.8 billion.
It also said the medical-cost ratio - the percentage of health-insurance premiums spent on medical care - was 86.7% in the second quarter. That's far lower than the FactSet estimate of 88.4% and the 89.4% it reported in the second quarter of 2025. UnitedHealth's leadership attributed that improvement to "product design changes, improved medical management and better aligned pricing."
"We believe these results were even higher than the investor bull case," Mizuho Securities analyst Ann Hynes told investors.
The company had 48.5 million customers in the second quarter, which again came in lower than the FactSet consensus of 51.0 million customers.
UnitedHealth's stock is up 24.4% so far this year, while the S&P 500 SPX has gained 10.4%.
-Jaimy Lee
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