Fortune | FORTUNE 前天 18:07
UnitedHealth Group didn’t just miss earnings, it did something far worse
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文章描述了美国联合健康集团(UHG)在短短几个月内遭遇的严重危机。从CEO离职、司法部介入调查,到公司业绩远低于预期,UHG市值蒸发超过1000亿美元,股价大幅下跌。公司现任CEO承认需要进行彻底的改革,涉及领导层、业务、文化等多个方面,并向股东寻求耐心。公司预计未来几年盈利增长缓慢,并面临重塑投资者信心的挑战。

UHG公司在四月份首次显现危机,此前其CEO因个人原因突然辞职,前CEO回归。公司第一季度财报远低于华尔街预期,导致股价暴跌,市值在数小时内蒸发超过1000亿美元。

随后,华尔街日报报道司法部正在调查UHG涉嫌犯罪的医疗保险欺诈行为,尽管公司表示未被正式通知。此消息再次引发股价大幅下跌,使得公司在一个月内市值损失过半。

在7月24日,UHG承认司法部正在就其医疗保险账单行为进行刑事和民事调查,此消息公布后股价再次下跌。随后的第二季度财报也未能提振市场信心。

公司现任CEO斯蒂芬·海姆斯利承认UHG需要进行全面的“整顿”,包括领导层、业务、文化、方法、实践、董事会、治理和继任监督等方面的改变。公司高管向股东寻求耐心,并承认表现未达预期,以更谦逊的态度处理业务。

海姆斯利预计今年公司利润不会增长,明年将实现“稳健但温和”的盈利增长,直到2027年才能看到“盈利增长前景迅速增强”。然而,鉴于公司面临的挑战和73岁CEO的任期,投资者对其改革能否在三年内完成表示担忧。

The crisis first manifested in April. UHG was emerging from the trauma of executive Brian Thompson’s high-profile murder in December when the company released first-quarter profits far below Wall Street’s expectations. The stock plunged, slashing over $100 billion from market value within hours. A month later, CEO Andrew Witty abruptly resigned for unspecified personal reasons, and former CEO Stephen Hemsley returned to the job. The stock plummeted again. The next day, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Justice was investigating UHG for possible criminal Medicare fraud. The company said it hadn’t been notified of any such investigation. The stock nosedived yet again.

In less than a month, this corporate giant had lost more than half its value. “This is a stock that every growth-oriented portfolio manager in the world owned for a decade and made money on it like clockwork,” Whit Mayo, an analyst at the Leerink healthcare investment bank, told Fortune at the time. “It’s stunning. It’s unthinkable.”

On July 24, five days before UHG’s second quarter earnings release, the company acknowledged that the Justice Department was conducting criminal and civil investigations of the company over its Medicare billing practices. You can guess what the stock did.

And then came the report of second quarter earnings.

Now, after months of being pummeled by investors, regulators, and media, Hemsley has admitted that UHG needs an exhaustive, stem-to-stern rehab—an extraordinarily audacious goal for an organization of some 400,000 employees. It’s a stark acknowledgement of deep and wide problems. How deep and wide? Hemsley says UHG will change “leadership, our businesses, our culture, approaches and practices, our board, governance and succession oversight…”

Executives now beseech shareholders for patience—quite a change from four months ago, before $330 billion of market cap evaporated. Dr. Patrick Conway, CEO of Optum, one of UHG’s two main divisions, now tells investors, “We know Optum’s performance has not met expectations.” Tim Noel, CEO of the other division, insurance, says, “We are approaching our business with greater humility.”

Hemsley appears to be setting expectations low. He says he does not see profit increasing at all this year. Next year, he sees “solid but moderate” earnings growth. Not until 2027 does he expect “our earnings growth outlook strengthening quickly.”

Even that schedule may not allow enough time. When Hemsley returned as CEO in June, the board of directors gave him a one-time $60-million award of stock options that would vest after three years. That term seemed lengthy for a 73-year-old whose objective was to right the ship. Now, after the latest quarter and the highly ambitious wide-ranging transformation he’s attempting, investors may wonder if three years will be enough.

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UHG 公司危机 医疗保险 司法调查 股票下跌
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