Investing.com – UnitedHealth Group stock (NYSE:UNH) traded 2% higher in Thursday’s premarket as strong third-quarter growth at its subsidiary Optum led it to revise its annual guidance again.
Growth at the other unit of the company, UnitedHealthcare, was also not far behind.
The insurer now expects full-year adjusted earnings per share around $18.78 at midpoint, up from the $18.55 estimate it had given in July.
Third-quarter revenue at Optum, the unit using analytics to cut costs and improving healthcare for patients, rose 14% to $39.8 billion as more people tended to health issues, many of them neglected because of the pandemic.
All businesses under Optum grew. Revenue per customer grew at OptumHealth while OptumInsight won new clients and grew its backlog by a billion dollar from the June quarter to $22.3 billion.
The UnitedHealthcare unit’s third-quarter revenue rose 11% to $55.9 billion. Total people served by UnitedHealthcare grew by 790,000 in the third quarter, led by continued strong growth in medicare advantage, dual special needs plans and Medicaid more broadly. Medicaid services expanded to new geographies.
The company said Medicare Advantage will probably enroll more than 900,000 people in all this year.
Overall, UnitedHealth Group’s third-quarter revenue came in at $72.3 billion, up 11%. Both revenue and adjusted earnings per share of $4.52 beat estimates.