UnitedHealth Group Q3 2025 earnings: revenue grows, costs pressure margins, guidance raised
UnitedHealth's Q3 revenue rose ~12% to $113.2B, but higher medical costs squeezed margins; the company still raised its full-year profit outlook.
| Q3 2025 | Reported |
|---|---|
| EPS | $2.59 |
| Revenue | $113.16B |
Figures as reported by the company to the SEC for the quarter ended September 30, 2025. Analyst estimates are not part of a filing, so no comparison to expectations is shown.
Key takeaways
- UnitedHealth reported consolidated revenue of $113.2 billion for the quarter, up about 12% from a year earlier, with growth spread across its insurance and Optum health-services businesses.
- The medical care ratio — the share of premium revenue paid out in medical claims — rose to 89.9%, up 4.7 percentage points from a year ago. The company attributed this to unusually high medical cost trends, continued effects of prior Medicare funding cuts, and changes to Medicare’s Part D drug-benefit program.
- Trailing-twelve-month net profit margin sits at 3.14% and EPS is down about 33% versus a year earlier on that basis, reflecting the squeeze from higher medical costs even as revenue continued to grow.
- UnitedHealthcare, the insurance segment, grew revenue 16% to $87.1 billion and added about 795,000 more people to its plans, largely driven by Medicare Advantage enrollment.
- Optum, the health-services arm, grew revenue 8% to $69.2 billion, powered by its pharmacy-benefit unit Optum Rx. Its Optum Health division, however, saw operating margin fall sharply to about 1%, down from roughly 8% a year earlier, as medical costs also pressured that business.
- The company raised its full-year 2025 outlook, now expecting net earnings of at least $14.90 per share and adjusted earnings of at least $16.25 per share, up from the prior forecast of at least $14.65 and $16.00, respectively.
- Management said cost trends remain historically elevated — roughly 7.5% for the full year in Medicare Advantage and over 11% in Medicare Supplement plans — and expects Medicare Advantage enrollment to shrink by about 1 million people, a step it says should help improve margins going into next year.
- Return on equity over the trailing twelve months stands at 14.4%, indicating the company remains solidly profitable overall even as this quarter’s margins were pressured by rising medical costs.
Q3 2025 in context
| Metric | Sep 2025 | Sep 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $113.2B | $100.8B | +12.2% |
| Net income | $2.3B | $6.1B | -61.2% |
| Free cash flow | $5.1B | $13.0B | -61.0% |
| Diluted EPS | $2.59 | $6.51 | -60.2% |
| Gross margin | 88.9% | 88.3% | +0.6 pts |
| Operating margin | 3.8% | 8.6% | -4.8 pts |
| Net margin | 2.1% | 6.0% | -3.9 pts |
Figures for the quarter ended Sep 2025 and the quarter ended Sep 2024, as reported to the SEC.
Each company's quarter ending in calendar Q3 '25, as reported to the SEC. A peer that reported no revenue figure for that quarter is left out.
How the stock took it
UnitedHealth Group Incorporated closed at $365.98 on Oct 27, 2025, the last session before the report, and at $355.26 on Oct 29, 2025, the first session after it — -2.9% across the report.
| Earlier report | Close before | Close after | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 11, 2025 | $250.89 | $261.57 | +4.3% |
Closes from the market's daily record. Each figure spans the report date — from the last session that closed before it to the first that closed after — because a company may report before the open or after the close.
Sources: company report · reputable coverage