UnitedHealth Stock Slides as Cyberattack Continues To Affect Outlook

Shares of UnitedHealth Group (UNH) tumbled Tuesday after the company lowered its full-year profit outlook to reflect the impact of a cyberattack against its Change Healthcare division in February.

The health insurer dropped its earnings per share (EPS) forecast to between $15.50 and $15.75 from $15.95 to $16.40. On an adjusted basis, the company said it has absorbed an estimated 75 cents per share of disruption from the cyberattack, 10 cents more than its prior-quarter estimate. 

In February, the company announced that Change Healthcare’s information technology systems had been hit with “a suspected nation-state associated cyber security threat” that disrupted medical billing and care authorization portals.

Shares of the company fell more than 9% at the opening bell Tuesday—enough that the stock is pulling the Dow Jones Industrial Average into the red nearly by itself. The average is down despite only a third of its 30 components trading lower, with next-biggest decliner, Intel (INTC), down just 2%. Recently, UnitedHealth shares were 7% lower at $561.16.

Revenue Grows, Led by Optum Division 

In the third quarter, UnitedHealth’s revenue grew 9% year-over-year to $100.8 billion, beating the Street’s analyst consensus from Visible Alpha. Net income was $6.1 billion, $6.51 per share, which missed expectations.

The company attributed its revenue growth to “strong expansion in people served at Optum and UnitedHealthcare.” Optum revenue rose more than 12% year-over-year to $63.9 billion, just above expectations.

Optum, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth, includes a mail-order pharmacy division, a health savings accounts (HSA) arm and a health-care provider payment processing operation.