UnitedHealth Group stock price drops again as the health insurance giant’s sickly summer continues

UnitedHealthcare’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group, is in need of some bed rest this week. The company’s stock price (NYSE: UNH) has been knocked off its feet again after the American insurance giant reported disappointing quarterly results and offered 2025 earnings guidance that was significantly below investor expectations. Here’s what you need to know.

UnitedHealth Group’s Q2 2025 earnings

Today, UnitedHealth Group reported its second-quarter 2025 results—and they didn’t live up to investor expectations.

For the quarter, the company reported an adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $4.08. It reported revenue of $111.62 billion for the quarter.

As noted by CNBC, analysts surveyed by LSEG had expected UnitedHealth to report revenue of $111.52 billion for the quarter, meaning the company slightly outperformed expectations. However, those same analysts also expected UnitedHealth to report an adjusted EPS of $4.48. At an actual adjusted EPS of $4.08, UnitedHealth came in significantly below expectations. 

The company may have beaten on revenue, but it made less profit than expected because of rising healthcare costs. Those rising healthcare costs are partly attributed to older customers now having surgery and other medical procedures that they put off during the pandemic years, notes CNBC. These include non-emergency procedures such as hip and other joint replacements.

Yet it wasn’t UnitedHealth Group’s Q2 results that gave investors the shivers. The company also updated its previously suspended 2025 full-year outlook. Investors weren’t happy about that either. UnitedHealth Group says it expects revenue of between $445.5 billion and $448 billion for fiscal 2025 and adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of “at least” $16.

As CNBC notes, investors had anticipated fiscal 2025 revenue of $449.16 billion and adjusted EPS of $20.91 per share.

As a result of the lackluster quarter and poorer-than-expected 2025 forecast, UnitedHealth Group shares are dropping in premarket trading this morning as of this writing.

Today’s results have seemed to have rattled health insurance industry investors, especially considering that UnitedHealth Group, as CNBC notes, is often seen as the “bellwether” for America’s private healthcare industry.

In sickness and in health

It’s not just UnitedHealth Group’s latest Q2 results and underwhelming fiscal 2025 forecast that have rattled the company’s investors as of late. Since the beginning of the summer, the company has seen bad news pile up.

In early May, UnitedHealth Group’s then-CEO, Andrew Witty, announced he was stepping down for personal reasons. Witty had been highly criticized for his perceived tone-deaf response to the anger that Americans expressed against the company after the killing of Brian Thompson, CEO of the company’s UnitedHealthcare unit, in December.

Along with announcing Witty’s departure, UnitedHealth Group also announced it was suspending its 2025 full-year fiscal outlook due to medical costs that were increasingly higher than expected. The company’s chairman, Stephen Hemsley, was announced as the new CEO.

But a few days after Hemsley became UnitedHealth Group’s new CEO, the Wall Street Journal reported that UnitedHealth was under investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) over possible Medicare fraud. This news, which UnitedHealth Group called “misinformation,” sent UNH shares tumbling.

Then, just last week, UnitedHealth Group confirmed on Thursday that it was indeed under federal criminal and civil investigations involving its Medicare business.

Americans angered by private insurance

While investors may be fretting over UnitedHealth Group’s woes, few Americans are likely to feel sympathy for the private insurance giant.

After the murder of Thompson, social media users in the United States exploded not with sadness or outrage, but with glee. 

What the reaction to the killing revealed was that there is a widespread, deeply rooted anger by Americans across the political spectrum against the country’s private healthcare system. As America’s largest private health insurer, UnitedHealth Group is a focal point for this anger—and Americans didn’t hold back.

As Fast Company reported at the time, social media was flooded with Americans venting their horror stories and frustrations in dealing with UnitedHealthcare and the other for-profit health insurance companies that have so much control over their health and financial lives.

“My copay for thoughts and prayers is $100,000; I heard his condition was pre-existing; My ability to care was denied; My sympathy requires a referral; Submitted claim for condolences was denied,” a user on Bluesky said.

This pent-up anger against UnitedHealth wasn’t helped by Witty’s response to the outcry, which some labeled “tone-deaf.”

UNH shares have had a bad 2025

As of the time of this writing, UNH shares are down about 1.11% to $279, driven by the company’s poor Q2 2025 results and disappointing fiscal 2025 guidance. But UNH shares depression is nothing new this year. 

Since the start of 2025, UNH shares had already fallen more than 44% as of yesterday’s close of markets, primarily due to the rising costs of healthcare. Over the past 12 months, UNH shares have collapsed more than 50% as of yesterday’s market close.