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UnitedHealth Q2 Preview: Can the Earnings Streak Continue?

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It’s shaping up to be an action-packed earnings season. Investors are highly awaiting 2022 Q2 results, as they will clarify how companies have navigated the rough economic waters in which we’ve been sailing.

We’ll receive several quarterly reports throughout the remainder of the week, and one of them includes UnitedHealth Group (UNH - Free Report) .

UnitedHealth provides a wide range of health care products and services, such as health maintenance organizations (HMOs), point of service plans (POS), preferred provider organizations (PPOs), and managed fee-for-service programs.

UNH is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) with an overall VGM Score of a B. In addition, the company resides within the Zacks Medical Sector, which has a year-to-date return of approximately -14%.

Let’s take a magnified view of the company to see how things shape up heading into the report; UNH is slated to release quarterly results before the opening bell on Friday.

Share Performance & Valuation

Year-to-date, UNH shares have provided investors with a marginal 0.4% gain, displaying a much higher level of defense than the S&P 500.

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Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Upon widening the timeframe to encompass the last year, the price action becomes even more robust; UNH shares have soared nearly 25%, extensively outperforming the S&P 500 in this timeframe as well.

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Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

The company sports a 23.7X forward earnings multiple, notably above its five-year median value of 19.6X but nicely below its 2021 high of 26.8X. Additionally, shares trade at a small 12% premium relative to its Zacks Sector.

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Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Quarterly Performance & Share Reactions

Undoubtedly impressive, UNH has reported strong bottom-line results consistently, exceeding the Zacks Consensus EPS Estimate in each of its last 30 quarterly reports. In its latest quarter, the company reported quarterly EPS of $1.63, good enough for a 6.5% bottom-line beat.

The top-line has also demonstrated consistency, with the company exceeding quarterly revenue estimates in seven straight quarters.

Additionally, the market has reacted well to bottom-line beats as of late; over its last six EPS beats, shares have moved upwards five times following the report.

Growth Estimates

For the quarterly report, both top and bottom-line estimates appear rock-solid. The $5.24 EPS estimate for the quarter reflects a notable 11.5% expansion in the bottom-line from the year-ago quarter. Over the last 60 days, the Consensus Estimate Trend has retraced marginally.

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Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

For the quarter, the Zacks Consensus Sales Estimate resides at a mighty $80 billion, reflecting an 11% uptick in quarterly revenue from the year-ago quarter.

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Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Bottom Line

Quarterly estimates display strong growth in both the top and bottom line. In addition, the share performance over the last year is undoubtedly a positive, the company is the definition of consistency in terms of bottom-line beats, and the market has reacted well to EPS beats as of late.

For these reasons, investors should feel optimistic heading into the quarterly report.


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