During the April 17 session, UnitedHealth (NYSE: UNH) suffered one of its worst single-day crashes in history, prompting multiple prominent analysts to downgrade their 12-month forecasts for the company.
Specifically, Piper Sandley abandoned its previous $600 price target and lowered its prediction to $592. Simultaneously, Barclays downgraded the forecast from $642 to $560.
Interestingly, the former now expects a 30.36% upside and the latter a 23.32% upside, and both elected to keep their ‘buy’ ratings for UNH stock, in line with previous assessments.
Why Wall Street is lowering UNH stock price targets
The price target revision was triggered by UnitedHealth’s latest earnings report, which showed the company missed both the revenue – recording $109.58 billion instead of $111.60 billion – and earnings per share (EPS) – announcing $7.20 and not $7.29 as was expected – forecasts.
Furthermore, UnitedHealth announced a downward revision to its full 2025 forecast, reducing its expected EPS from the $29.50-$30 range to $26-$26.50.
The revelation proved substantially damaging for both UNH stock and the wider health sector, as many other companies operating within it, such as CVS Health Corp (NYSE: CVS) and Humana (NYSE: HUM), experienced strong downturns on April 17.
UnitedHealth stock plunges 22.38% in a day
Lastly, the last session ahead of Easter proved additionally damaging as it effectively erased UNH stock’s entire recovery from the downturn kickstarted by the fatal shooting of the then UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in late 2024.
At their press time price of $454.11, UnitedHealth shares are 10.23% down year-to-date (YTD), 9.86% in the red in the 30 days, and, perhaps most starkly, 22.38% down in the 24-hour chart.
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