Profit surpassed the $3 billion mark for the fourth consecutive quarter at UnitedHealth Group as the nation's largest health insurer continues to pile up revenue and income from its push into patient care services.
The quarterly results released Thursday morning surpassed analyst expectations and prompted the Minnesota-based health care conglomerate to boost earnings guidance for the year.
Even so, shares of UnitedHealth Group were trading down about 2% in midmorning trading Thursday.
"We remain confident as we look forward to the second half of 2019," said David Wichmann, the company's chief executive, during a conference call with investors. Wichmann said the results reflected "strong and balanced performance" from the company's Optum division for health care services and UnitedHealthcare, which is the nation's largest health insurer.
Within Optum, the company has been expanding its network of clinics, surgery centers and urgent care centers. The patient care business is part of the company's OptumHealth division, which posted during the second quarter revenue and earnings from operations that were 20% and 21% beyond tallies from the year-ago quarter.
"OptumHealth served approximately 95 million people at June 30, 2019, and the average revenue per consumer increased 17% year-over-year," the company said in a news release. For the quarter, the division posted operating income of $688 million on $7.1 billion of revenue.
The Optum division also includes a pharmaceutical benefits management (PBM) business plus a unit for health care data and information technology.
Membership in UnitedHealthcare health insurance coverage at the end of the second quarter stood at more than 43 million people, up slightly from last year.
Overall in the second quarter, UnitedHealth Group posted a profit of nearly $3.3 billion _ an increase of about $371 million, or 13%, ahead of last year's results _ on $60.6 billion of revenue. Adjusted earnings per share of $3.60 beat by 15 cents the expectations of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.
The company increased its full year outlook for adjusted net earnings to $14.70 to $14.90 per share, up from the previous range of $14.50 to $14.75 per share.
UnitedHealth Group, Minnesota's largest company by revenue, now employs about 320,000 people worldwide, Wichmann said. The company employs about 18,000 people in Minnesota.
