Is the business good?
How good a business is UNH?
UnitedHealth Group earns 12% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
12%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 2.7 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 4.8%
Operating margin · Healthcare Plans median 2.0% · 12 months to Q2 2026
- Cash conversion
- 1.67×
Cash conversion · 1.19× a year ago · every dollar of reported profit arrived as cash, and more
- Share count, year on year
- −0.44%
Share count, year on year · flat: no meaningful dilution
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 8.7% |
| FY2021 | 8.3% |
| FY2022 | 8.8% |
| FY2023 | 8.7% |
| FY2024 | 8.1% |
| FY2025 | 4.2% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 89%
- Operating margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 4.8%
- Net margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 3.1%
- Free cash flow margin
- 5.3%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $450.1B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $23.6B
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $14.1B
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 12%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.
Healthcare Plans
Ranks #10 of 11 by Smart Score