UnitedHealth Q4 Earnings Beats; Guides For 2016

UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH – Analyst Report), the bellwether of health insurance companies, has a strong presence in the sector and is among the top five companies in the industry. This Minneapolis-based company is well known for its diversified business profile providing an array of well-being services to people through all stages of life.   

UnitedHealth stands apart from its peers as it has focused on growing the less regulated business that is the health services segment named as Optum. This health service segment is like a jewel in the crown for the company and is expected to make increasing contribution to the group’s overall revenues going forward. The company’s recent acquisition of Catamaran will beef up its pharmacy benefits business, OptumRx.

The company recently disclosed problems faced in its individual public exchanges which led it to pull down its earnings estimates for 2015. The company also expressed its intention to quit the exchange business in 2017 if its remains unprofitable.

UnitedHealth has a pretty good earnings track record with the company delivering positive earnings surprises in each of the last four quarters with an average surprise of 4.5%.

Currently, UnitedHealth has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). We have highlighted some of the key stats from this just-revealed announcement below:

Earnings Beat: UnitedHealth beat fourth quarter earnings by three cents per share. Our consensus called for EPS of $1.37 and the company reported EPS of $1.40.

Full year 2015 EPS of $6.45 came in a penny ahead of our consensus estimate of $6.44 per share.

Revenues Beat: Revenues also came in ahead of expectations. UnitedHealth posted revenues of $43.6 billion, compared to our consensus estimate of $43.1 billion and grew 31% year over year.
  
Full year revenue of $157.1 billion zoomed past our consensus estimate of $156.5 billion and was up 20% year over year.

Key Stats: Revenues from the company’s health care segment came in at $32.8 billion up 10% year over year while the other segment – Optum posted revenue of $21.9 billion up 42% year over year.