UnitedHealth Group Reports Flat First-Quarter Earnings

UnitedHealth Group, the giant conglomerate, is still struggling to show signs of recovery from last year’s steep decline in profits, even as the company reported first-quarter earnings on Tuesday that were higher than Wall Street expectations.

The company’s earnings were relatively flat year over year, reflecting UnitedHealth Group’s difficulties in navigating rising medical costs, government scrutiny of its billing practices and the sustained general public distrust of health insurers. It is the first of the major for-profit insurers to report results for the first quarter of 2026, signaling the potential for a continuation of industrywide challenges.

The company reported earnings from operations for the first three months of 2026 of $9 billion on revenue of $112 billion, on par with its 2025 first-quarter results. Its overall revenue for last year totaled $448 billion.

United modestly raised its profit outlook for 2026 to greater than $17.35 a share.

Once one of the nation’s most highly valued and respected companies, UnitedHealth posted sharply lower results last spring that led the company’s stock price to plummet. The stock lost nearly half its value in a matter of months.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/business/united-health-group-earnings.html