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UnitedHealth shares climb on Q3 earnings, raised guidance

By Robert Davis

18:43, 26 October 2021

UnitedHealthcare building
UNH increased the number of people it served by 790,000 in Q3 - Photo: Shutterstock

Shares of UnitedHealth Group (UNH) were up more than 1.3% to $455.03 (£330.60) Tuesday after the company announced its third-quarter earnings and raised its guidance.

Shares have gained more than 12.3% in value over the last month and more than 30% so far in 2021.

According to the company’s third-quarter earnings statement, UNH brought in $72.3bn in revenue, up 11% from this time last year.

Earnings per share (EPS) for the third quarter was $4.28. Seven analysts at MarketBeat expected UNH to report $71bn in revenue and EPS of $4.57.

Cash flow from operations totalled $7.6bn.

Investors received more than $1.4bn in dividend payments during the third quarter, an increase of 16% compared to the prior-year period.

UNH also repurchased more than 2.5 million shares for $1.1bn during the third quarter.

UNH increased the number of people it served by 790,000 during the third quarter.

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For the full year 2021, UNH expects to bring in net earnings of between $17.70 and $17.95 per share, up from the company’s previous $17.35 to $17.85 EPS projection.  

Read more: UnitedHealth enjoys strong Q2 as revenues rise 15%

The difference between stocks and CFDs

The main difference between CFD trading and stock trading is that you don’t own the underlying stock when you trade on an individual stock CFD.

With CFDs, you never actually buy or sell the underlying asset that you’ve chosen to trade. You can still benefit if the market moves in your favour, or make a loss if it moves against you. However, with traditional stock trading you enter a contract to exchange the legal ownership of the individual shares for money, and you own this equity.

CFDs are leveraged products, which means that you only need to deposit a percentage of the full value of the CFD trade in order to open a position. But with traditional stock trading, you buy the shares for the full amount. In the UK, there is no stamp duty on CFD trading, but there is when you buy stocks.

CFDs attract overnight costs to hold the trades, (unless you use 1-1 leverage)

which makes them more suited to short-term trading opportunities. Stocks are more normally bought and held for longer. You might also pay a stockbroker commission or fees when buying and selling stocks.

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