UnitedHealth: 2Q26 Beat With Guidance Meaningfully Revised Upwards On Broad-Based Strength

Research evidence excerpt

UnitedHealth: 2Q26 Beat With Guidance Meaningfully Revised Upwards On Broad-Based Strength

J P M O R G A N North America Equity Research

16 July 2026

UnitedHealth Overweight

UNH, UNH US

2Q26 Beat With Guidance Meaningfully Revised Price (15 Jul 26):$418.52

Upwards On Broad-Based Strength

Managed Care and Facilities

UNH's 2Q26 adj. EPS came in well ahead of our expectations ($6.38 vs. $4.97/ Lisa C. Gill AC

$4.89 JPMe/consensus), which we believe cleared the high bar set by investors. (1-212) 622-6466

This was coupled with an upbeat increase to 2026 guidance, now calling for adj. lisa.c.gill@jpmorgan.com

EPS of $19.50-$20.00, which we believe was toward the upper end of expectations, John Stansel, CFA

as investors had been looking for a "path" to $20.00. UNH has been a popular name (1-212) 622-0083

within the group, and we see the 2Q print as delivering on those expectations, with john.stansel@jpmorgan.com

key areas of focus (UHC/OptumHealth) both contributing to outperformance in Benjamin Rossi

the quarter and driving positive revisions to guidance. (1-212) 622-9603

benjamin.rossi@jpmorgan.com

Cole HarrisGAAP MLR was better-than-expected at 86.7% vs. 88.5% JPMe/consensus with

(1-212) 622-9068

management noting a ~130bps favorable impact from prior period development cole.harris@jpmorgan.com

(primarily related to 2026 dates of service). Excluding this factor, UNH would J.P. Morgan Securities LLC

have beaten consensus expectations by ~50bp. SG&A was in line with Street

estimates (GAAP SG&A of 12.7% vs JPMe/consensus of 12.1%/12.6%). Within

the segments, we saw all four business lines outperform consensus expectations,

notably with OptumHealth posting ~$1.2B in operating profit, well ahead of JPMe/

Consensus of $504M/$481M (see Figure 1 for more detail). DCP was 47.0