Fundamentals snapshot
UNH · NYQ · Healthcare · Healthcare Plans
Current price
$399.47
52-week range
$234.60 - $404.15
Market cap
$362.78B
One-glance verdict
We don't put a cash-flow fair value on banks and insurers. For these companies the reported 'cash flow' is really just money moving between loans, deposits and trades — not the leftover profit the owners could actually pocket — so the usual method would print a misleading number.
Balance sheet
Net debt $46.69B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
Quick scan of the biggest positives and negatives from the detailed checklist below.
What this company does
UnitedHealth Group is a massive healthcare company that makes money in two main ways through its UnitedHealthcare and Optum brands. The company collects regular payments for health insurance plans sold to employers and individuals, and it also provides direct health services like doctor's care, data analytics, and pharmacy benefits management. This combination of insuring patients and also providing their care creates a powerful ecosystem (a network of connected businesses that support each other), giving it significant influence over costs and services in the U.S. health industry.
UnitedHealth Group started in 1974 as a company called Charter Med, created to process medical claims for doctors. It soon began managing health plans and became a publicly traded company in 1984. A key turning point was the creation of its Optum brand in 2011, which combined its fast-growing health services businesses. Through many acquisitions of other health insurers and healthcare service companies over the years, it has grown into the largest healthcare company in the world by revenue.
UnitedHealth Group is a massive company that operates in nearly every corner of the U.S. healthcare system. It's best known for providing health insurance plans, which you might get through your job or through government programs like Medicare and Medicaid. But it also runs a large and growing part of the business that provides services directly to patients, doctors, and hospitals, including managing prescription drugs, offering data analysis to hospitals, and even running its own clinics and doctor's offices. Think of it as two giant businesses under one roof: one that pays for healthcare (the insurance side) and one that provides healthcare services and technology (the services side).
This is the health insurance side of the company and makes up the majority of its revenue. It's the part of the business that offers health benefit plans to employers (from large corporations to small businesses), individuals, and government bodies. When you have a UnitedHealthcare insurance card, this is the division you're dealing with. They collect regular payments, called premiums, from members or their employers, and in return, they pay for a portion of your medical costs when you go to the doctor or hospital.
This segment is focused on directly providing medical care to people. It owns or manages doctor's offices, urgent care centers, and surgery centers, employing or partnering with tens of thousands of physicians. The goal of Optum Health is to provide care directly to patients, often in a way that is designed to be more efficient and effective, sometimes through arrangements where they are paid based on keeping patients healthy rather than just for each service provided (a model known as value-based care). This is a fast-growing part of the company.
Think of this as the technology and data part of the company. Optum Insight provides software, data analytics (the process of examining data to find trends and draw conclusions), and consulting services to hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare organizations. For example, it helps hospitals manage their billing and payments (a process called revenue cycle management) and provides data tools to help doctors make more informed treatment decisions. This segment makes money by selling its technology and expertise to others in the healthcare industry.
This is the company's pharmacy benefit manager (PBM). A PBM's job is to manage prescription drug benefits for health plans, employers, and government programs. Optum Rx negotiates drug prices with pharmaceutical companies, creates lists of preferred drugs (called formularies), and processes prescription claims. It also operates its own home delivery and specialty pharmacies, which handle medications for complex conditions. This segment earns revenue through fees for its management services and by participating in the complex system of drug pricing and rebates.
Management is focused on what they call a dual-engine model: growing both the UnitedHealthcare insurance business and the Optum health services businesses together. A major priority is expanding 'value-based care,' where doctors and hospitals are paid based on patient health outcomes rather than the number of services they provide. They are also heavily investing in technology, like artificial intelligence (AI), to make healthcare administration simpler and to help guide consumers to the right care. The overall strategy is to connect all the different parts of the healthcare system—from insurance to pharmacy to doctor visits—to make it work more efficiently and at a lower cost.
Price history
Earnings history
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
Is it cheap or expensive?
For a bank or insurer, the "free cash flow" shown on its statements is mostly money flowing through loans, deposits and trades — not the leftover profit the owners could actually keep, which is what this kind of valuation needs. Running that through the usual method would spit out a meaningless number, so we leave the cash-flow fair value out here rather than show you something misleading.
Is it drowning in debt?
Net debt $46.7B. Interest coverage 4.7x.
UnitedHealth Group Incorporated's profit covers its interest bill about 4.7 times over. which is stronger than most peers shown here and 1 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Total debt $77.92B Interest coverage 4.74x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $31.84B Interest coverage 5.79x +22% vs UNH Carries about 1.2x more debt cushion than UNH.
Total debt $30.90B Interest coverage 6.00x +27% vs UNH Carries about 1.3x more debt cushion than UNH.
Total debt $78.35B Interest coverage 3.33x -30% vs UNH Carries about 1.4x less debt cushion than UNH.
Total debt $14.37B Interest coverage 3.46x -27% vs UNH Carries about 1.4x less debt cushion than UNH.
Total debt $16.37B Interest coverage -0.46x -100% vs UNH This peer has almost no interest-payment cushion compared with UNH.
What you should know
The numbers
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Valuation
Profitability
Health
Growth
Cash flow
Dividend
Metric explainer
Debt comparison
What you should know