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By Brian Nelson, CFA
On May 13, UnitedHealth Group (UNH) announced that its CEO Andrew Witty will step down for personal reasons. Taking his place is Stephen Hemsley, who served as the company CEO from 2006-2017. Hemsley had the following to say about the change in the executive suite:
We are grateful for Andrew’s stewardship of UnitedHealth Group, especially during some of the most challenging times any company has ever faced. The Board and I have greatly valued his leadership and compassion as chief executive and as a director and wish him and his family the best.
UnitedHealth Group has tremendous opportunities to grow as we continue to help improve health care and to perform to our potential — and, in so doing, return to our long-term growth objective of 13 to 16 percent.
UnitedHealth also suspended its recently-lowered 2025 outlook “as care activity continued to accelerate while also broadening to more types of benefit offerings than seen in the first quarter, and the medical costs of many Medicare Advantage beneficiaries new to UnitedHealthcare remained higher than expected.” Though the company expects to return to growth in 2026, we’re putting the company under review while we reevaluate our fair value estimate for shares. UnitedHealth remains an idea in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio.
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Brian Nelson owns shares in SPY, SCHG, QQQ, QQQM, DIA, VOT, RSP, and IWM. Valuentum owns SPY, SCHG, QQQ, QQQM, VOO, and DIA. Brian Nelson’s household owns shares in HON, DIS, HAS, NKE, DIA, RSP, SCHG, QQQ, QQQM, and VOO. Some of the other securities written about in this article may be included in Valuentum’s simulated newsletter portfolios. Contact Valuentum for more information about its editorial policies.
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