Morgan Stanley Reiterates Overweight Rating on UnitedHealth Group (UNH)

Morgan Stanley analyst Erin Wright reiterated an Overweight rating and $563.00 price target on UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH).

The analyst comments "This morning (5/13), UNH released a press release (here) announcing Sir Andrew Witty would be stepping down from the CEO role for personal reasons and will immediately be replaced by Stephen Hemsley. For those newer to UNH, Hemsley served as the company's CEO from 2006-2017. For what it is worth, conversations around leadership at the company had become a more frequent topic of conversation over the past few weeks. With this PR, UNH also took the opportunity to suspend '25 guidance as care activity has continued to accelerate, a dynamic that has now moved to other benefit offerings and new member mix in MA continues to be more challenging a dynamic than anticipated. The news represents the latest in a string of setbacks for the company, and focus for investors will be on the continuing elevated cost trends, above and beyond its expectations - a dynamic that will inevitably weigh on its shares today. Turning to the peer group, the item that stands out most is that the company is seeing cost trends increase in areas beyond Group MA "care activity continued to accelerate while also broadening to more types of benefit offerings than seen in the first quarter" which may weigh on the group's shares today as investors wait to hear from peers on if a broader increase in trend is more than a co-specific issue for UNH. Note, it is pointing for a 'return to growth in 2026' (note: prior 2025 EPS guidance of -5% at MP). UNH will host a conference call this morning at 8am ET to discuss these announcements (see here for webcast)."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on UnitedHealth Group click here. For more ratings news on UnitedHealth Group click here.

Shares of UnitedHealth Group closed at $378.75 yesterday.

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