There have been instances in which saying that a major stock fell off a cliff, as when describing the fortunes of UnitedHealth (NYSE: UNH) in the Thursday pre-market, and immediately after the morning bell.

Specifically, in the first hour of the trading day, UNH stock dropped 19.17% to its press time price of $472.91, resulting in a total decline of 20.51% in the weekly chart.

UnitedHealth’s latest earnings report, published early on Thursday morning, April 17, is the main culprit behind UNH’s plunge, as it revealed the company had underperformed analyst expectations in terms of revenue and earnings per share (EPS).

For the former, it reported $109.58 billion, instead of the expected $111.60 billion, and for the latter, it announced $7.20, not $7.29 as was widely anticipated.

As unexpected as the two misses were, they were arguably not as damaging to UNH stock price as UnitedHealth’s significantly lowered guidance for the full 2025. Indeed, the EPS forecast reduction proved especially steep, as the healthcare giant now expects it to be in the range of $26 to $26.50.

The previous expectation was for the UNH EPS to amount to between $29.50 and $30 per share.

UNH stock earnings crash erases UnitedHealthcare’s post-shooting recovery

The timing of the plunge is especially unfortunate for UnitedHealth investors as it came relatively shortly after UNH stock price began recovering from the protracted decline that started with the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in late 2024.

Additionally, the scale of the drop confirms the low confidence among traders that the high valuations of major U.S. companies can be sustained – a state of affairs made abundantly clear by multiple other metrics, such as consumer confidence and investor anxiety about a recession.

UNH share price crash drags entire healthcare sector lower

Elsewhere, UnitedHealth’s stock price decline had a major bearing on the rest of the healthcare sector, with multiple other companies from the industry seeing their equity collapse in early trading on Thursday.

Though CVS Health Corp (NYSE: CVS) has not, being 4% down to $65.80 by press time, been among the biggest losers on Thursday, it has seen a major spike in investor interest, judging by the figures Finbold retrieved from Google Trends.

Lastly, among the other major S&P 500 healthcare industry movers, Humana (NYSE: HUM) is the second-biggest loser, having declined 8.97% to $260.76, while Cigna Group (NYSE: CI) is holding relatively steady, being down only 0.07% in the first hour of Thursday trading.

Featured image via Shutterstock

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