UnitedHealth just posted the kind of quarter that makes people forget last year happened. Q1 2026 came in at $7.23 EPS, nearly 10% above the $6.59 consensus, on $111.7 billion in revenue. The medical benefit ratio dropped to 83.9%, a meaningful improvement from the 84.8% a year ago and well below what the street was expecting. Full-year guidance got bumped to over $18.25 per share, up from $17.75 previously.
The stock jumped almost 7% on the day and kept climbing. For a company that lost half its market cap in 2025 after the CEO resigned and the DOJ came knocking, this quarter feels like the okay-maybe-the-worst-is-behind-us moment. UNH is now trading around $355. Still nowhere near the $610 highs from early 2025, but the direction changed.