UnitedHealth Group beats 4Q net income and revenue expectations

UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH) on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter profit of $1.51 billion.

The Minneapolis-based company said it had profit of $1.55 per share.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.50 per share.

The largest U.S. health insurer posted revenue of $33.43 billion in the period, which also beat Street forecasts. Analysts expected $33.09 billion, according to Zacks.

UnitedHealth expects full-year earnings to be $6 to $6.25 per share, with revenue in the range of $140.5 billion to $141.5 billion.

UnitedHealth shares have climbed 4.5 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has declined almost 2 percent. The stock has climbed 46 percent in the last 12 months.

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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap ) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on UNH at http://www.zacks.com/ap/UNH

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Keywords: UnitedHealth Group, Earnings Report, Priority Earnings