Elevance Health, Inc. ELV

The insurer said it’s trying to restrict hospitals from charging higher rates for services at off-campus outpatient departments. Hospital groups say the reimbursement cuts could threaten access to care.

Elevance Health is scheduled to report its third-quarter results soon, and analysts expect a double-digit earnings decline.

UnitedHealth (UNH) stock trades at 22.5 times its past year's adjusted earnings, which are normalized net income with stock-based pay added back. That multiple leaves little room for error after three years of shrinking operating margins, sitting near the stock's 10-year median despite fundamentally weaker profitability. But the price looks different against the profit expected for fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2027. So what are UnitedHealth investors betting on.

UnitedHealth shareholders spent five years waiting for a stock that barely budged, yet something inside the company kept growing the whole time. Whether that something is enough to make UNH worth holding now depends on costs that management has not yet fully tamed.

With traders bracing for another possible 0.25% Fed hike in October, solid labor data and firm inflation keep pressure on anything seen as risky. Defensive dividend stocks suddenly feel less boring and more like a potential anchor for a jumpier market, especially for investors who care about steady income when policy stays tight. This article breaks down three large cap dividend payers exposed to these macro shocks and explores how the latest data may help or hurt each stock. The three...

If you own CVS Health (CVS), the primary focus shifts from 2026 execution toward potential headwind variables heading into 2027. Management raised its 2026 earnings outlook on its fiscal Q2 2026 call in August. It also gave an early read on 2027, a quarter sooner than usual. One warning in that read came with no number. Over the past three months, the shares lost 15.2%, while the S&P 500 gained 5.0%. What is the 2027 problem CVS would not put a number on.

By Exec Edge Editorial Staff Health insurance premiums have climbed for years. Deductibles have climbed right along with them. Yet a growing number of American households are choosing neither, opting instead for a decades-old alternative, which is not health insurance, built around monthly contributions and community values. “People are clearly paying high premiums now,” Liberty […] The post Liberty HealthShare’s Dorsey Morrow Makes the Financial Case for Healthsharing on Becker’s Healthcare Pod

UnitedHealth Group (UNH) stock has risen about 40% since late March 2026, against close to 19% for the S&P 500. Read cold, that looks like a recovery nobody could have timed. It was not hidden. The company had said plainly, months before the shares turned, that it would give up members to rebuild margin.

UnitedHealth (UNH) has turned its profits around. Operating earnings rose 55% in the second quarter of 2026, and management raised its full-year adjusted earnings guide to $19.50 to $20 a share. Revenue, though, has nearly stopped growing. So the rest of the recovery rests on something the company only partly controls: the medical bills of the people it insures.

Elevance Health has delivered a 1 year gain that puts the stock firmly on investors' radar, and the latest reaffirmed earnings outlook has only sharpened the focus on what you are paying for each dollar of profit. With the price around US$410.95 at the last close, the key issue now is whether that tag lines up with the insurer's earnings power. The stock is up 33.6% over the past year, which raises the question of whether that move is grounded in its underlying earnings profile. Management...

CVS Health (CVS) keeps a little over a penny of profit from every dollar it takes in. A net margin of 1.2% reads like a verdict on the business. On $415.1 billion of revenue, one point of net margin is worth over $4 billion, and 1.2% is closer to a floor than a peak. Management has been working on it through 2026.

The stocks in this article are all trading near their 52-week highs. This strength often reflects positive developments such as new product launches, favorable industry trends, or improved financial performance.

UnitedHealth's repair job is going to plan almost everywhere. The exception is the cost of its commercial health plans, where medical costs are running modestly above the 11% the company had been expecting. Medicare costs are coming in below what it planned for 2026, and Medicaid cost trend is in line, though management expects Medicaid margins to stay pressured for 2026. That cost divergence is what a holder should watch.

The health care giant showered its owners with cash, yet the stock spent years in the slow lane. Here’s the accounting of what that trade-off actually delivered.

UnitedHealth (UNH) has spent the past year repairing margins rather than chasing growth. The shares rebounded well ahead of any actual margin recovery: up about 38% over the past six months, though down about 6% over the past three, and still behind the S&P 500 over the past twelve months, 12.2% for the stock against 18.6% for the index. What argues for owning them now shows up in cash running ahead of reported profit.