UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (UNH) Rose on Earnings Beat

Madison Investments, an investment advisor, released its “Madison Sustainable Equity Fund” third quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. All equity classes experienced good results in the third quarter. During the quarter, equity markets ended on a high note, with the S&P 500 achieving a 5.89% increase, bringing the full-year performance to 22.08%. The Value outperformed growth and the market broadened outside the mega-cap tech stocks during the quarter. Against this backdrop, Madison Sustainable Equity Fund (Class Y) outperformed the S&P 500 in the quarter. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to find out its best picks for 2024.

Madison Sustainable Equity Fund highlighted stocks like UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) in the third quarter 2024 investor letter. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) is a diversified healthcare company that operates through UnitedHealthcare, Optum Health, Optum Insight, and Optum Rx segments. The one-month return of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) was 3.47%, and its shares gained 9.28% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On November 18, 2024, UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) stock closed at $589.65 per share with a market capitalization of $545.02 billion.

Madison Sustainable Equity Fund stated the following regarding UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:

"The top contributors in the quarter were NextEra Energy, Oracle Corporation, Progressive Corporation, Equifax Inc., and UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH). United Healthcare reported a solid second quarter with an earnings beat. The quarter was a bit messy, but the underlying results were strong. The quarter included costs related to the Change Healthcare outage; however, investors have shifted their focus to 2025 with expected Medicare Advantage growth and moderating headwinds from Medicaid Medical Loss Ratio."

A senior healthcare professional giving advice to a patient in a clinic.

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) is in 22nd position on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 112 hedge fund portfolios held UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) at the end of the third quarter which was 114 in the previous quarter. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated’s (NYSE:UNH) Q3 revenues reached $101 billion, marking a 9% year-over-year increase with strong growth at both Optum and UnitedHealthcare segments. While we acknowledge the potential of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.