Latest news with #RyanLangston
Business Insider
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
TD Cowen Remains a Hold on UnitedHealth (UNH)
In a report released today, Ryan Langston from TD Cowen reiterated a Hold rating on UnitedHealth (UNH – Research Report), with a price target of $308.00. Confident Investing Starts Here: Langston covers the Healthcare sector, focusing on stocks such as UnitedHealth, P3 Health Partners, and Acadia Healthcare. According to TipRanks, Langston has an average return of -7.2% and a 30.56% success rate on recommended stocks. In addition to TD Cowen, UnitedHealth also received a Hold from Raymond James's John Ransom in a report issued on May 16. However, today, KeyBanc maintained a Buy rating on UnitedHealth (NYSE: UNH). Based on UnitedHealth's latest earnings release for the quarter ending March 31, the company reported a quarterly revenue of $109.58 billion and a net profit of $6.29 billion. In comparison, last year the company earned a revenue of $98.79 billion and had a GAAP net loss of $1.41 billion Based on the recent corporate insider activity of 147 insiders, corporate insider sentiment is positive on the stock. This means that over the past quarter there has been an increase of insiders buying their shares of UNH in relation to earlier this year. Last month, Timothy Patrick Flynn, a Director at UNH bought 1,533.00 shares for a total of $491,786.40.
Business Insider
28-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
TD Cowen Reaffirms Their Hold Rating on P3 Health Partners (PIII)
TD Cowen analyst Ryan Langston maintained a Hold rating on P3 Health Partners (PIII – Research Report) today and set a price target of $8.00. The company's shares closed today at $7.26. Confident Investing Starts Here: Easily unpack a company's performance with TipRanks' new KPI Data for smart investment decisions Receive undervalued, market resilient stocks right to your inbox with TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter Langston covers the Healthcare sector, focusing on stocks such as Acadia Healthcare, P3 Health Partners, and UnitedHealth. According to TipRanks, Langston has an average return of -7.8% and a 27.78% success rate on recommended stocks. In addition to TD Cowen, P3 Health Partners also received a Hold from BTIG's David Larsen in a report issued on May 19. However, on May 16, William Blair maintained a Buy rating on P3 Health Partners (NASDAQ: PIII). The company has a one-year high of $33.70 and a one-year low of $7.00. Currently, P3 Health Partners has an average volume of 13.56K.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
UnitedHealth downgraded by investment banks
This story was originally published on Healthcare Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Healthcare Dive newsletter. UnitedHealth, once the darling of Wall Street, is being downgraded by investment banks after the company pulled its profit guidance for 2025, abruptly swapped out its CEO and reportedly faces a criminal investigation by the Justice Department. Together, the challenges have tanked UnitedHealth's stock to pre-pandemic lows in just one month. Last week, Raymond James and Bank of America both downgraded UnitedHealth's stock, from 'strong buy' to 'market perform' and 'buy' to 'neutral,' respectively. And on Monday, TD Cowen downgraded UnitedHealth from 'buy' to 'hold.' Investors' points of concern include higher utilization in Medicare Advantage plans spreading to more complex patients, like people dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. In addition, changes to risk coding put in place by the Biden administration appear to be hampering UnitedHealth's ability to upcode, or account for more members' sicknesses in return for higher reimbursement from the federal government. UnitedHealth's insurance arm UnitedHealthcare is the largest provider of the privatized Medicare plans and upcodes at higher rates than its peers in the MA program, according to research. 'We suspect the v28 risk model is disproportionately impacting [UnitedHealth],' wrote TD Cowen analyst Ryan Langston in his note downgrading the company's stock. 'Accelerating MA care activity with potential acceleration in Commercial/Medicaid further complicates the story.' UnitedHealth's stock has also been pressured by a report the Wall Street Journal published Thursday finding that the Department of Justice is investigating UnitedHealth for possible criminal Medicare fraud, an allegation UnitedHealth denies. At the close of last week, UnitedHealth was trading at its lowest level since the summer of 2020, with five years of stock gains erased in about a month. Between mid-April and mid-May, UnitedHealth lost roughly $266 billion in market capitalization — half of its overall value — leading analysts to reverse their bullish outlook on the company's future prospects, especially given that the challenges facing UnitedHealth don't appear to be touching other insurers. $UNH price at close, Jan. 2025 to date This embedded content is not available in your region. Amid the turbulence, UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty stepped down last week citing personal issues. 'As of now, we view [UnitedHealth's] issues as company specific, and we think the quick resignation of the CEO indicates this is more likely to be internal than external,' Bank of America research analyst Joanna Gajuk wrote in her note downgrading the company. However, UnitedHealth's stock has experienced recent uptick after a number of company insiders, including UnitedHealth's new CEO, purchased millions of dollars in stock. Stephen Hemsley, UnitedHealth's board chair who replaced Witty as the company's chief executive, purchased $25 million in stock on Friday, according to a securities filing. CFO John Rex also bought about $5 million in stock, while three company directors — John Noseworthy, Kristen Gil and Timothy Flynn — also purchased shares. Despite UnitedHealth's troubles, many investors believe Hemsley is a good pick to usher the company back to profitable growth. The executive served as CEO from 2006 to 2017 and built UnitedHealth into the diversified healthcare giant it is today, containing a major health insurer, pharmacy benefit manager, physician network and health tech company. During Hemsley's tenure, UnitedHealth consistently outperformed earnings expectations — perhaps the reason UnitedHealth has approved a $61 million pay package for the new CEO. Recommended Reading Andrew Witty steps down as UnitedHealth CEO Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
CNBC
19-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
TD Cowen downgrades UnitedHealth on changes to Medicare Advantage
TD Cowen is moving to the sidelines on UnitedHealth . The firm downgraded the health insurance giant to hold from buy and trimmed its price target $308 per share from $520. TD Cowen's new forecast implies about 6% upside from Friday's close. Analyst Ryan Langston said changes to the V28 Medicare Advantage model could serve as a lingering headwind over UnitedHealth. "We believe v28 risk model changes are disproportionally impacting UNH given outsized RAF [risk adjustment factor] scores vs industry and 2026 is further effected with the year 3 phase-in," Langston said. "Accelerating MA cost trend with potential increases in commercial/Medicaid as well as recent regulatory scrutiny further complicate the story." Langston's call comes during a rough period for UnitedHealth. The company announced last week that CEO Andrew Witty stepped down for "personal reasons" and suspended its 2025 guidance . On top of that, The Wall Street Journal reported that the company was the subject of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation . Shares have plummeted more than 42% in 2025. Last week alone, it dropped over 23%. UNH YTD mountain UnitedHealth stock. "UNH correctly foreshadowed accelerating cost trend in mid-2023. If this accelerating activity were to materialize in Commercial and/or Medicaid (to be clear, UNH says that is not currently the case), we see further potential downside risk to consensus estimates," the analyst added. Despite the downgrade, shares were up more than 4% in the premarket. .
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Molina reports mixed Q1, says Medicaid rates are increasing
This story was originally published on Healthcare Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Healthcare Dive newsletter. Molina beat analyst expectations for earnings and revenue in the first quarter, with a topline of $11.1 billion, up 12% year over year, and net income of $298 million, down 1% year over year, according to results released Wednesday. The California-based insurer said its medical costs increased moderately in the quarter, mostly due to utilization of long-term supports and services, expensive drugs and behavioral health, along with more spending on seasonal illnesses like the flu. However, costs were generally in line with what Molina had predicted, a bright spot after UnitedHealth, the largest private insurer in the U.S., reported an unexpected spike in spending earlier this month. Molina's results can be viewed as 'good enough,' TD Cowen analyst Ryan Langston wrote in a note on the insurer's first quarter performance. Molina offers health insurance through Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act exchanges, though the lion's share of its members — 4.8 million out of 5.8 million total — are in Medicaid. Like other insurers that contract with states to manage the care of their Medicaid population, Molina has struggled with volatility in the safety-net program spurred by states rechecking members' eligibility for the coverage. That's created a disparity between beneficiary acuity and state payment rates, which haven't kept pace with rising costs for members' care, according to insurers. However, rates for 2025 are coming in slightly higher than Molina had previously expected — a good sign for margins, though that's only if Medicaid spending doesn't spike this year, executives said. 'States are obviously recognizing certain cost pressures and updating rates both on-cycle and off-cycle to compensate for it,' CEO Joe Zubretsky told investors on a Thursday morning call. Molina did see elevated medical spending in the quarter, reporting a medical loss ratio of 89.2%, slightly above analysts' expectations. The insurer's MLR for its members in Affordable Care Act plans was 81.7%, significantly higher than expected. For reference, Molina reported an ACA MLR of 73.3% same time last year. Executives chalked up the jump in ACA spending up to a few factors. In the first quarter, some members discovered on their tax documents that they'd been unknowingly enrolled in ACA coverage, potentially due to broker fraud, or that they'd received subsidies for which they weren't eligible. As a result, the government scrubbed members from those plans and clawed back any improper subsidies from Molina, dinging revenue, according to CFO Mark Keim. Molina's final risk scores for its ACA plans in 2024 also came in a little lower than expected, resulting in the insurer having to redistribute some funds to plans with higher-risk enrollees. And, new ACA members Molina brought onboard through its acquisition of ConnectiCare, a $350 million deal that closed in Feburary, came in with higher medical costs, Keim said. Without those factors in the quarter, Molina's ACA MLR would have been a more normal 77.7%, according to the CFO. In February, Molina predicted it would end the first quarter with roughly 597,000 ACA members. But Molina actually closed the quarter with 662,000, 10% higher than expected. That was due to strong gains during the open enrollment and special enrollment periods, and due to Molina's aggressive pricing strategy to make plans more affordable, resulting in more members remaining on the coverage, executives said. The growth is a good sign, but should be taken with a degree of caution given insurers with high exposure to the ACA exchanges, like Molina, Centene and Oscar Health, have reported risk scores increasing unexpectedly starting at the end of 2024, Jefferies analyst David Windley wrote in a note. That could lead to higher costs for members' care that weren't captured in plan pricing for 2025, Windley said. Molina reiterated its guidance for 2025, including adjusted earnings per share of at least $24.50, representing 8% growth over 2024. The insurer expects to bring in $42 billion in premium revenue this year, up about 9% from 2024. That guidance recognizes potential changes to Medicaid as Republicans in Congress zero in on the safety-net program to reduce federal spending, Zubretsky said. Any cuts to Medicaid would negatively impact revenue for insurers like Molina in managed care arrangements with states. However, Medicaid's popularity among voters appears to be insulating the program from the most drastic of proposed cuts, insinuating that any near-term changes will be 'marginal,' Zubretsky said. In addition, states have said they're willing to allow insurers to adjust the pricing of their ACA plans later in the year if Congress allows more generous subsidies to expire, which also mitigates policy risk, according to the CEO. Zubretsky also said the insurer remains acquisitive after recent acquisitions of ConnectiCare and Medicare Advantage plans previously owned by Bright Health. Potential targets could even be more open to being acquired due to the uncertainty emanating from Washington, he said. 'Some of these smaller single-state, single-geography companies are struggling ... so no, [policy volatility is] not casting a pall and may even be helping,' Zubretsky said. Recommended Reading New contract wins ding Molina's earnings outlook for 2025 Sign in to access your portfolio
