US health insurers rise on UnitedHealth's upbeat Q1 profit

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

16/04/2024 13:25

** Shares of U.S. health insurers rise between 2% and 5% in
premarket trading after UnitedHealth Group  UNH.N  reports Q1
results
    ** UNH reports upbeat Q1 adj. profit and maintains 2024
forecast despite the disruptions caused by the February
cyberattack at its Change Healthcare unit
    ** Rival Humana  HUM.N  climbs 4.6%, CVS Health  CVS.N  up
3.8%, while Cigna Group  CI.N  rise 2.1%
    ** Shares of health insurers have been under pressure since
late November, when UNH said a late-year increase in medical
care among older adults had led to elevated medical costs
    ** UNH shares up 7.9%, while Elevance Health  ELV.N  gains
2.5%, Centene Corp  CNC.N  up 1.8%
    ** Morningstar analysts said that it looked like demand for
medical care trends were in-line with management's expectations,
which could be a relief to industry investors who have been
concerned about those elevated trends
    ** YTD, HUM down 31.3%, CVS down 12.7%, UNH down 15.4% while
CI up 16.5%

 (Reporting by Pratik Jain in Bengaluru)
 ((Pratik.Jain@thomsonreuters.com;))