UnitedHealth (UNH) Stock: What Wall Street Expects from Earnings Tuesday

TLDR

• UnitedHealth (UNH) reports Q3 earnings Tuesday, October 13, before the market opens.
• Wall Street expects EPS of $4.15 and revenue of $111.31 billion.
• Options traders price in a 7% move in either direction after the report.
• Piper Sandler kept a Buy and TD Cowen kept a Hold, and both trimmed their price targets.
• UNH has a Strong Buy consensus on TipRanks, with an average target of $485.

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UnitedHealth (UNH) stock trades near $379 ahead of its third-quarter earnings report. The company reports before the market opens on Tuesday, October 13.

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated, UNH

The stock is up about 17% so far this year. It also gained about 2% in the latest session.

Wall Street expects earnings of $4.15 per share, up from $2.92 a year ago. Revenue is forecast at $111.31 billion.

That revenue figure sits below the $113.20 billion from the prior quarter. Analysts also see a 2% decline from the same quarter last year.

What Options Traders Are Pricing In

Options traders expect a 7% move in either direction after the report. That works out to about $27 on the stock.

Is $UNH a comeback story or a trap?

It reports Tuesday, Oct 13. Here is a quick check before the news.

A Sept 28 earnings preview memo lists the company’s 2026 plan. Adjusted earnings of $19.50 to $20 per share, raised from an older plan. At least $5B in buybacks. A Medicare…

— Josh (@JoshTradeOption) October 11, 2026

The figure shows the size of the expected move, not the direction. Traders are not calling a winner here.

UNH’s last four post-earnings moves ranged from a 20% decline to a 7% gain. The average absolute move was about 7%, right in line with what options imply.

UnitedHealth beat revenue estimates last quarter with $112 billion, flat from a year earlier. It also topped EPS expectations.

The company has missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates several times over the past two years. Analysts have mostly held their estimates steady over the past 30 days.

Analyst Views Before the Report

Piper Sandler’s Jessica Tassan kept a Buy rating but cut her price target to $463 from $475. She said Medicare Advantage star ratings show resilience.

Tassan wrote, “We would be buyers of the stock into 3Q26.” Her target implies about 22% upside.

TD Cowen’s Ryan Langston cut his target to $402 from $430 and kept a Hold rating. He called consensus estimates for medical costs and earnings “more than achievable.”

Langston sees adjusted EPS at $4.12. He also pointed to Optum Health, where consensus operating earnings of $299 million top management’s guidance of about $150 million.

He warned that lower Medicare Advantage star ratings could create a $1.5 billion revenue headwind in 2028. On TipRanks, UNH holds a Strong Buy rating, with 17 Buys and four Holds.

The average price target of $485 implies about 28% upside. UnitedHealth is the first in its peer group to report this season, so there is no read from other insurers yet.

Healthcare providers and services stocks rose about 2% on average over the past month, while UNH was unchanged. Investors will watch revenue, medical costs and full-year guidance when the company reports Tuesday before the open.