UnitedHealth Group (UNH) Fell 33% as Rising Medical Costs and Member Mix Pressured Earnings

Latitude Investment Management, an investment management firm, released its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The letter emphasizes a long-term, fundamentals-driven investment philosophy, arguing that while stock prices can be volatile in the short run, they ultimately follow underlying earnings growth—illustrated through the “dog and owner” analogy. The portfolio delivered strong results in 2025, with earnings growing over 15% and returns of 21%, largely driven by consistent fundamental growth rather than valuation changes. The manager highlights a diversified portfolio of high-quality, cash-generative companies with solid market positions, low investment needs, and attractive shareholder returns through dividends and buybacks. The letter notes selective portfolio shifts toward more defensive, attractively valued names while maintaining double-digit growth potential. Looking ahead, the outlook remains positive, with expectations for continued earnings growth, improving opportunities from market dispersion, and attractive valuations providing a margin of safety despite limited exposure to crowded themes like AI. In addition, please check the Fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter, Latitude Investment Management highlighted stocks like UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH). UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) is a diversified healthcare company providing insurance and healthcare services through its UnitedHealthcare and Optum segments. The one-month return of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) was 21.75% while its shares traded between $234.60 and $405.15 over the last 52 weeks. On May 15, 2026, UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) stock closed at approximately $393.85 per share, with a market capitalization of about $357.67 billion.

Latitude Investment Management stated the following regarding UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) in its Q4 2025 investor letter:

“UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) was one of two stocks in our portfolio that delivered a negative return for the year, down 33%. United Health is the largest MCO, with a membership of 51 million people, overseeing $400bn of healthcare expense reimbursement across US commercial health insurance plans, as well as government programmes (Medicare and Medicaid). There were two primary issues in 2025:

First, medical cost trends were significantly higher than expectations at the outset of the year (+7.5% compared to the +5% they budgeted for). 7 To put it into figures, United Health generated operating profits of $32bn in 2024, an 8.3% margin. A -2.5% deviation on costs on a total of $400bn of spend is a $10bn impact on the business, and the main reason why the earnings shortfall this year was quite so dramatic.

Second, they recently attracted a large number of new members, from weaker peers, who exhibited worse health attributes than expected. It’s our view that this happened due to United Health’s superior coverage and service, making a greater level of care available with greater ease…” (Click here to read the full text)

UnitedHealth Group (UNH) Fell 33% as Rising Medical Costs and Member Mix Pressured Earnings

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UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) is in 14th position on our list of 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds Heading Into 2026. As per our database, 145 hedge fund portfolios held UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) at the end of the fourth quarter, which was 140 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

In another article, we covered UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) and shared the list of stocks Jim Cramer discussed. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.

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