UnitedHealth Group Incorporated

How has the stock done?

Change in closing price from the first day shown, or with Price the closing price itself. Prices: Yahoo Finance, to Nov 12, 2026. Dashed lines: the days the company released earnings (its SEC 8-K filings); EPS estimates: Yahoo Finance. The stock's move after a release runs from the last close before its day to the close the day after (or five days after), so a release before the open counts like one after the close.

Is the business growing?

Quarters: UnitedHealth Group Incorporated's SEC filings, named by the month they end. Fiscal years: UnitedHealth Group Incorporated's annual reports to the SEC.

How it makes money

Of every $100 in revenue, $2.7 ends up as net income. Net margin fell from 6.2% to 2.7% over the past 3 years.

Each margin is that line of the income statement divided by revenue. Fiscal year: UnitedHealth Group Incorporated's annual reports to the SEC; quarters: SEC filings.

How much of each premium goes to care?

UnitedHealth Group paid out 88.4% of the premiums it earned as medical costs in the quarter to Sep 2026, against 89.9% in the same quarter a year earlier. Over the last four quarters it earned $350.4B in premiums, up 3.1% on the four quarters before, and paid out 87.9% of them.

From UnitedHealth Group Incorporated's SEC filings: claims and benefits incurred over premiums earned, by quarter, the fourth being the year minus nine months. What is left of the premiums pays for running the plans, before any profit.

Customers and suppliers

In its latest annual report UnitedHealth Group sells to CMS; it names no suppliers.

 

UNHUnitedHealth Group

Customers

CMS 44%

Clover Health Investments CLOV

Changes since the previous annual report (10-K filed Feb 27, 2025)

CMSCustomer, share of revenue40% → 44%

Only the companies UnitedHealth Group names in its 10-K filed Mar 2, 2026 (SEC). The supply chain joins the latest annual reports of the companies on it and the 8-Ks they filed since: a link shows when either side's report names the other, so it grows as more reports are read. Hover a name for the filing's own words.

Is it expensive?

P/E of 23.1x, above the peer median of 18.3x, so it needs earnings to keep growing to hold up.

Priced 27% above the peer median of 18.3x.

At 23.1× trailing earnings UNH is inside the middle of its five-year range; the five-year median is 25.5×.

Closing price over diluted earnings per share of the last four reported quarters, as known on each day (a quarter counts 35 days after it ends). From SEC filings; earnings per share adjusted for splits.

What analysts expect

The average analyst price target is $477, 18% above the current price; 81% of 26 analysts rate it a buy; earnings beat estimates in 3 of the last 4 quarters.

Buy or Strong Buy: 21 analysts (81%). Sell or Strong Sell: 0.

Over the past year the average of the analysts' latest price targets went from $379.52 to $477.65 (+26%), while UNH went from $332.52 to $405.13 (+22%). In the past three months targets were raised 5 times and cut 5 times. 4 upgrades and no downgrades over the year; the latest: Baird moved it to Neutral from Underperform on Jul 16, 2026.

The day after each of these reports the stock moved −16.4% (Dec 2025, in line); +9.3% (Mar 2026, beat); +1.8% (Jun 2026, beat); +4.5% (Sep 2026, beat).

For the quarter ending Dec 2026 (UnitedHealth Group reports on Jan 12, 2027), analysts expect adjusted earnings of $2.27 a share, 8% more than the $2.11 of a year earlier, and revenue of $112.4B, down 1% on a year earlier. For the fiscal year ending Dec 2027, they expect adjusted earnings of $23.33 a share, 13% more than the year before's estimate of $20.61.

Targets, ratings and earnings estimates: Yahoo Finance. Rating and target changes: Yahoo Finance's list of upgrades and downgrades. The average target on each day is the average of every listed firm's latest target set in the 180 days before it, so it counts fewer analysts than the average target above, and the band is the middle half of those targets (a quarter of the firms are above it, a quarter below); a target set before a stock split is divided by the split. Expected figures: the average of the analysts' estimates (Yahoo Finance). Their EPS is adjusted, as analysts estimate it, so it is set against the adjusted EPS Yahoo reports for the same quarters, not the GAAP EPS of the growth and valuation sections; revenue against the SEC filings. No change is given against a quarter whose reported EPS was more than 50% off its own estimate (often a one-off gain or charge), nor against a year that counts one. Each estimate is pinned to its fiscal period by the report date or the period's end, and one that cannot be is left out.

Where the cash goes

Generated $22.8B in free cash flow over the year, of which $13.2B went back to shareholders (dividends plus buybacks), leaving $9.6B in the company.

UnitedHealth Group had 902M diluted shares in the quarter ended Sep 2026, 0.7% fewer than a year earlier, and 1.0% fewer each year on average since Jun 2020. It spent $5.0B on buybacks over the last four quarters. Over the last four quarters its earnings per share fell 8.7% and its net income fell 9.7%: fewer shares added about 1 point.

Free cash flow: operating cash flow minus capital spending on property, plant and equipment, from SEC filings, for the last 4 quarters and by quarter. Shares: each quarter's diluted weighted average as filed with the SEC, since the stock's listing and its latest split.

Financial health

Current ratio 0.8, short-term debt coverage is tight; debt-to-equity 0.8, debt is moderate.

Latest fiscal year balance sheet. Source: Yahoo Finance.

Who holds it

In the filings of 4 members of Congress and 11 funds whose copy leaves UNH out (on the exchange, not in the app yet): Tom Kean Jr., Patient Capital Management, Fisher Asset Management, UNICOM Systems, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Norges Bank and 9 more.

What did the funds Hunch tracks do?

Of the 83 funds whose 13F filings Hunch reads, 23 held UNH at the end of their latest quarter (for most, Q2 2026). Over that quarter 10 added shares, 10 cut, 2 bought new, 2 sold all and 1 held the same. The largest of them is Norges Bank, 12.74M shares worth $5.3B at Jun 30, 2026, 3.9% fewer than at Dec 31, 2025.

From the 13F filings of the 83 funds Hunch tracks, not of every institution: each fund's shares of UNH at its latest quarter end against the quarter before, as filed (long positions only, options left out), the quarter before put on the latest quarter's share count across a split. A fund files 45 days after its quarter ends, so some have a newer quarter than others. Value is at the quarter end. Norges Bank filed its 13F for Q1 2026 confidentially, with no holdings made public, so its row compares Q2 2026 with Q4 2025.