UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (UNH) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript Summary

/ / Health Care /

The following is a summary of the UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (UNH) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript: Financial Performance: UnitedHealth reported 2023 revenue of $372 billion, a growth of over 14% with double-digit growth achieved by both Optum and UnitedHealthcare. Fourth quarter adjusted earnings per share of $6.16 grew 15%, leading to a 13% growth in the full-year adjusted earnings per share, which reached $25.12. Due to the sale of Brazil operations, the company expects to record a charge of approximately $7 billion, primarily stemming from non-cash foreign currency translation losses. The cash flow from operations in 2023 reached $29 billion or 1.3 times the net income. The company returned nearly $15 billion to shareholders through share repurchase and dividends and set aside over $10 billion in growth capital for future development. Business Progress: UnitedHealth added 900,000 new members to value-based care arrangements, bringing the total count to over 4.1 million. […]

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Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:UBER) Stock Analyst Ratings

/ / Consumer Discretionary /

Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:UBER) Stock Analyst Ratings Date Upside/Downside Analyst Firm Price Target Change Rating Change Previous / Current Rating 01/11/2024 25.2% Goldman Sachs $59 → $78 Maintains Buy 01/09/2024 10.75% BMO Capital → $69 Initiates Coverage On → Outperform 12/29/2023 -0.48% Nomura $59 → $62 Downgrades Buy → Neutral 12/19/2023 12.36% Keybanc $61 → $70 Maintains Overweight 12/04/2023 20.39% Oppenheimer $65 → $75 Maintains Outperform 12/01/2023 -0.48% JMP Securities → $62 Reiterates Market Outperform → Market Outperform 11/30/2023 1.12% Needham → $63 Reiterates Buy → Buy 11/30/2023 15.57% Tigress Financial $66 → $72 Maintains Buy 11/13/2023 -0.48% JMP Securities $57 → $62 Maintains Market Outperform 11/08/2023 -0.48% Morgan Stanley $60 → $62 Maintains Overweight 11/08/2023 -0.48% Roth MKM $61 → $62 Maintains Buy 11/08/2023 -0.48% JP Morgan $56 → $62 Maintains Overweight 11/08/2023 -6.9% Truist Securities $60 → $58 Maintains Buy 11/08/2023 2.73% Wells Fargo $59 → $64 Maintains

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Preview: Delta Air Lines’s Earnings

/ / Consumer Discretionary /

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) is set to give its latest quarterly earnings report on Friday, 2024-01-12. Here’s what investors need to know before the announcement. Analysts estimate that Delta Air Lines will report an earnings per share (EPS) of $1.16. Delta Air Lines bulls will hope to hear the company announce they’ve not only beaten that estimate, but also to provide positive guidance, or forecasted growth, for the next quarter. New investors should note that it is sometimes not an earnings beat or miss that most affects the price of a stock, but the guidance (or forecast).

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Earnings Outlook For UnitedHealth Group

/ / Health Care /

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) is set to give its latest quarterly earnings report on Friday, 2024-01-12. Here’s what investors need to know before the announcement. Analysts estimate that UnitedHealth Group will report an earnings per share (EPS) of $5.98. UnitedHealth Group bulls will hope to hear the company announce they’ve not only beaten that estimate, but also to provide positive guidance, or forecasted growth, for the next quarter. New investors should note that it is sometimes not an earnings beat or miss that most affects the price of a stock, but the guidance (or forecast).

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ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) Stock Analyst Ratings

/ / Technology /

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) Stock Analyst Ratings Date Upside/Downside Analyst Firm Price Target Change Rating Change Previous / Current Rating 01/11/2024 3.5% Stifel $650 → $740 Maintains Buy 12/06/2023 7.69% Argus Research $675 → $770 Maintains Buy 11/30/2023 1.4% Wells Fargo $675 → $725 Maintains Overweight 11/09/2023 -4.9% RBC Capital $665 → $680 Maintains Outperform 10/26/2023 -9.09% Stifel $640 → $650 Maintains Buy 10/26/2023 -13.29% Piper Sandler $600 → $620 Maintains Overweight 10/26/2023 -11.89% BMO Capital $615 → $630 Maintains Outperform 10/26/2023 -5.59% Wells Fargo $650 → $675 Maintains Overweight 10/26/2023 -9.37% Morgan Stanley $630 → $648 Maintains Overweight 10/26/2023 -7.69% Needham → $660 Reiterates Buy → Buy 10/24/2023 -19.58% Truist Securities → $575 Reiterates Hold → Hold 10/24/2023 -13.99% BMO Capital $630 → $615 Maintains Outperform 10/19/2023 -8.11% Guggenheim → $657 Reiterates Buy → Buy 10/19/2023 -2.1% Citigroup $734 → $700 Maintains Buy 10/18/2023 -7.69% Needham → $660 Reiterates Buy →

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Tesla Notifies US Production Workers of Pay Increase

/ / Consumer Discretionary /

Tesla (TSLA) has notified production workers that it is raising pay across its US factories, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing a flyer posted at the automaker’s facility in Fremont, California. According to the report, the flyer states that the company is making a “market adjustment pay increase” for all US production associates, material handlers and quality inspectors but it did not mention how much of a raise they will get. Tesla’s senior director of human resources didn’t respond to questions, Bloomberg said.

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Mastercard’s Stock Upgrade Backed by a High Growth Estimate and Incredible Long-term Success

/ / Industrials /

By Philip van Doorn Oppenheimer analyst Dominick Gabriele sees 19% upside for the stock over the next 18 months On Wednesday, Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Dominick Gabriele upgraded Mastercard Inc. to an “outperform” rating with a 12-18 month price target of $510, which was 19% higher than the stock’s closing price of $428.27 that day. In a note to clients, Gabriele wrote that there was some concern over his estimated annual earnings-per-share growth rate of 17% for Mastercard (MA) over the next three to five years, because this was slower than the growth pace before the COVID-19 pandemic. But he concluded that the expected profit growth pace was “good enough” to support his price target. EPS growth Looking back, Mastercard’s EPS increased at a compound-annual-growth rate (CAGR) of 29.1% for the three-year period ending 2019. That was an incredible pace for earnings growth, compared with a three-year EPS CAGR of

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Boeing Faces Investigation Into 737-9 Max Aircraft Design Compliance, Operational Safety, FAA Says

/ / Industrials /

Boeing (BA) is facing an investigation that will determine if the company failed to ensure that its completed products conformed to their approved design and were in safe operating condition, the Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday. The investigation follows the Jan. 5 incident where a door plug fell off from 737-9 Max Alaska Air passenger jet shortly after takeoff. “Boeing’s manufacturing practices need to comply with the high safety standards they’re legally accountable to meet,” the FAA in an update. The regulator has grounded the 737-9 Max planes and said the timeline for their return would be determined based on safety of the public.

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Eli Lilly’s Fiscal 2024 Revenue Guidance May Top Views As New Obesity Drug Gains Steam, Morgan Stanley Says

/ / Health Care /

Eli Lilly and Company’s (LLY) fiscal 2024 revenue guidance may tilt higher than expected on the momentum of its new weight loss drug while its earnings forecast may come in short amid multiple ongoing late-stage trials, Morgan Stanley said Thursday. The brokerage increased its price target to $763 from $727 and reiterated an overweight rating on the stock ahead of financial results due Feb. 6. Eli Lilly is expected to report fiscal 2023 figures and provide initial guidance for the new year. The brokerage sees 6% upside to consensus revenue estimates for 2024 on a “solid launch” of Eli Lilly’s weight loss drug Zepbound in the US, which it said is tracking ahead of the company’s blood-sugar regulation drug Mounjaro at a similar time point. The Capital IQ consensus is for fiscal 2024 revenue of $38.92 billion. In 2024, Morgan Stanley now estimates Zepbound revenue of $6.1 billion, above the

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UnitedHealth Reports Earnings Friday. Here’s What to Expect. — Barrons.com

/ / Health Care /

By Josh Nathan-Kazis The managed care giant UnitedHealth Group kicks off the earnings season for healthcare companies Friday morning. Investors will watch closely for updates on how intensely patients used healthcare services in the last quarter of the year, a key bellwether for the healthcare sector. Higher-than-expected utilization of medical services by patients enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans over the past year has periodically sparked worries among investors in recent months. UnitedHealth’s medical loss ratio for the fourth quarter, or MLR — which tracks the proportion of premiums paid out to cover medical expenses — will be closely watched. A higher MLR means more spending on medical expenses, and less room for profit. Analysts expect UnitedHealth to report an MLR of 84.1% for the fourth quarter, according to FactSet, higher than the 82.8% paid out in the same quarter in 2022. Nevertheless, Wall Street projects UnitedHealth will report earnings of

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Uber, DoorDash and Instacart Can Integrate More Deeply Into Local Commerce, Goldman Sachs Says. They’re Less Optimistic About Lyft.

/ / Consumer Discretionary /

By Bill Peters Lyft faces ‘a wide range of topline outcomes in the quarters ahead’ as it tries to stand out from Uber, analysts say The fortunes of gig-economy giants like Uber Technologies Inc., DoorDash Inc. and Instacart will increasingly depend on their ability to broaden what they deliver and to integrate more deeply into local economies, Goldman Sachs analysts said on Thursday. But they saw fewer benefits this year for one of the bigger industry players that hasn’t expanded into delivery, Lyft Inc. Analysts at Goldman downgraded shares of Lyft (LYFT) to a neutral rating from buy, saying the ride-hailing platform’s price cuts for rides and expectations for solid demand growth had already been priced in to Wall Street’s financial estimates this year. Shares of Lyft finished 0.3% lower on Thursday. The analysts also said they “continue to see execution risks” as Lyft contends with higher insurance costs to

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Starbucks Showing Signs of Demand Slowdown

/ / Consumer Discretionary /

Many investors seem to be bracing for Starbucks to miss Wall Street’s comparable sales estimates in fiscal 1Q amid indications of a slowdown in U.S. demand, Baird analysts say in a research note. The analysts are lowering their own estimates based on management’s fairly cautious commentary about consumer spending during a conference presentation in December, as well as its unusually aggressive approach to promotional activity during the high-volume holiday season. Those promos and signs of a step-up in personalized marketing suggest Starbucks may have been reacting to the more challenging spending backdrop, the analysts say.

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