UnitedHealth Group (UNH) Earnings: Q3 2026 Results and Next Report Date

The quarter ended September 30, 2026 and UnitedHealth Group published the results on October 13, 2026. Revenue and diluted EPS are shown against Q3 2025, the same quarter a year earlier, which takes seasonal swings out of the comparison. UnitedHealth Group reports EPS two ways: GAAP, under the accounting rules every US filer follows, and adjusted, which leaves out items the company considers outside its operating results. The release reconciles the two, and when they diverge, the reconciliation says why.

• UnitedHealthcare and Optum revenues add up to more than the consolidated total because Optum serves UnitedHealthcare. Consolidated revenues for the quarter include $40,519 million of corporate eliminations and $1,428 million of Optum eliminations.
• UnitedHealth Group recast prior-period Optum Health and Optum Insight figures to reflect the realignment of Optum Financial.
• Fourth quarter 2025 diluted EPS was $0.01 (adjusted $2.11). In that quarter UnitedHealth Group took portfolio actions after a strategic review, including an agreement to sell its remaining South American operations, which it expects to close in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Source: UnitedHealth Group Q3 2026 results, October 13, 2026. Also in the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026. Figures as reported; checked against the release on November 10, 2026.

How UnitedHealth Group splits revenue in its own release, under its own labels, for Q3 2026 against Q3 2025. Indented lines are parts of the line above them.

• UnitedHealth Group's UnitedHealthcare revenue was $86.3 billion in Q3 2026, down 1% from $87.1 billion in Q3 2025, 77% of total revenue.
• UnitedHealth Group's Optum revenue was $66.9 billion in Q3 2026, down 3% from $69.2 billion in Q3 2025, 59% of total revenue.

Segment lines are the figures writers cite most often, because they show where the growth in a quarter came from. Companies redraw their segments from time to time and restate the prior year to match, so a year-ago figure here can differ from the one printed a year ago. When that has happened, the note above says so.

From the earnings release

In its Q3 2026 release, UnitedHealth Group said:

“Updated Full Year 2026 Earnings Outlook to At Least $19.50 Per Share; Adjusted Earnings of At Least $20.50 Per Share”

“The company now expects full year 2026 adjusted net earnings of at least $20.50 per share, incorporating experience through the third quarter 2026.”

“The company continues to target a long-term debt-to-capital ratio of approximately 40.0% by year-end.”

Source: UnitedHealth Group Q3 2026 release, Oct 13, 2026.

This is the company's own guidance as of Oct 13, 2026, quoted as given. Walnut does not make forecasts of its own. Analyst estimates for the coming quarters are on the UNH forecast page.

Revenue and diluted EPS for the last 5 quarters. Each date links to that quarter's release.

GAAP figures, each as first reported in that quarter's release. UnitedHealth Group publishes the fourth quarter in its full-year release, so no quarter here is derived.

UnitedHealth Group's next report is expected around January 12, 2027, a date estimated from its reporting history that the company has not yet confirmed. This page will show Q3 2026 until those results are out and have been checked against the release.

Each quarter keeps its own page with the figures as reported, so a link to one stays pointed at the same numbers after the next report.

• Q3 2026 (this page), reported Oct 13, 2026

Most of UnitedHealth Group's revenue is insurance premiums. Of $112,694 million in total revenues in Q3 2026, premiums were $87,078 million, products $14,293 million, services $10,246 million and investment and other income $1,077 million. The 10-K says premium revenues from risk-based products make up nearly 80% of consolidated revenues, and premium revenues from CMS alone were 44% of total revenues in 2025. (UnitedHealth Group Q3 2026 release, Oct 13, 2026; UnitedHealth Group Form 10-K, 2025, Mar 2, 2026)

UnitedHealth Group reports two businesses. UnitedHealthcare, the health benefits business, had revenues of $86,330 million: Medicare & Retirement $42,420 million, Community & State $23,702 million and Employer & Individual $20,208 million. Optum had $66,883 million, of which Optum Rx was $39,927 million, Optum Health $22,910 million and Optum Insight $5,474 million. Because Optum also serves UnitedHealthcare, the consolidated figure nets out $40,519 million of corporate eliminations. (UnitedHealth Group Q3 2026 release, Oct 13, 2026)

Total revenues slipped from $113,161 million a year earlier. The 10-Q puts this down to fewer people served through Medicare Advantage, commercial risk-based offerings, Medicaid and value-based arrangements at Optum Health, partly offset by pricing trends at UnitedHealthcare. UnitedHealthcare served 48,300 thousand people at September 30, 2026, against 50,125 thousand a year earlier, with Medicare Advantage down from 8,435 thousand to 7,605 thousand and Medicaid down from 7,460 thousand to 6,695 thousand. (UnitedHealth Group Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 3, 2026; UnitedHealth Group Q3 2026 release, Oct 13, 2026)

Optum Health revenues of $22.9 billion fell 10% year over year, which UnitedHealth Group attributed to serving fewer value-based care patients in markets where Optum lacked sufficient value-based care presence. Optum Rx filled 393 million adjusted scripts against 414 million a year earlier, citing membership declines within UnitedHealthcare and other customers. (UnitedHealth Group Q3 2026 release, Oct 13, 2026)

UnitedHealth Group's GAAP diluted EPS was $4.56 in Q3 2026 and its adjusted EPS $4.69, against $2.59 and $2.92 a year earlier. Adjusted EPS adds back intangible amortization ($0.41 per share this quarter) and excludes net portfolio divestitures and South American impacts (a $0.16 per share benefit) and restructuring and other items (a $0.08 per share benefit), net of a $0.04 tax effect. (UnitedHealth Group Q3 2026 release, Oct 13, 2026)

Earnings from operations rose to $6,563 million from $4,315 million. The medical care ratio, medical costs divided by premiums, fell to 88.4% from 89.9%, and included $610 million of net favorable prior period reserve development related to 2026 dates of service. Restructuring and other items included a $95 million net decrease in loss contract reserves. (UnitedHealth Group Q3 2026 release, Oct 13, 2026; UnitedHealth Group Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 3, 2026)

Diluted weighted-average shares were 902 million against 908 million a year earlier. Over the first nine months of 2026 UnitedHealth Group repurchased about 13.8 million shares at an average price of $359.55, and in November 2026 its board authorized the repurchase of up to 50 million more shares. The tax rate was 22.2% in the quarter, against 21.2% a year earlier. (UnitedHealth Group Q3 2026 release, Oct 13, 2026; UnitedHealth Group Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 3, 2026)

Diluted EPS divides net income by the weighted average number of shares outstanding in the quarter, plus the shares that options and other equity awards could add. Buybacks shrink that count and lift EPS for the same profit; share issuance and stock awards enlarge it.

UnitedHealth Group gives a full-year outlook in its release and updates it each quarter. With Q3 2026 results it raised the 2026 outlook to at least $19.50 of GAAP EPS and at least $20.50 of adjusted EPS, incorporating experience through the third quarter. Adjusted EPS for the first nine months was $18.30. (UnitedHealth Group Q3 2026 release, Oct 13, 2026)

The release's reconciliation projects full-year net earnings attributable to shareholders of more than $17,650 million and intangible amortization of about $1,405 million. UnitedHealth Group also said it continues to target a debt-to-capital ratio of about 40.0% by year-end; the ratio was 41.7% at September 30, 2026. (UnitedHealth Group Q3 2026 release, Oct 13, 2026)

A consensus figure is the average of the models published by the analysts who cover UnitedHealth Group, collected by a data provider and revised up to the day of the report. A quarter that lands above it says how expectations were set as much as how the business did, and the share price on the day also reflects the guidance and the lines no consensus covers.

The consensus figures on this page are Yahoo Finance's, as pulled on the date shown. Each comes with the number of analysts behind it; the smaller that number, the more one revised estimate can move the average.

The figures below are the ones UnitedHealth Group's own release and filings put weight on for Q3 2026, with the latest reported value for each.

What the quarter means for a holding is a separate question from what it reported. The case for and against owning UNH is on is UNH a buy or a sell?, what analysts expect next is on the UNH forecast, and what the company does is on the UnitedHealth Group (UNH) stock page.

Every number on this page can be traced to a document UnitedHealth Group published. Checking one takes a couple of minutes, and it is worth doing before you quote a figure anywhere.

• The results release is the document linked in the source line above. Companies publish it on their investor relations site at the moment results go out, and it carries the headline tables: revenue, operating income, net income and EPS for the quarter and the year-ago quarter.
• The same release is filed with the SEC as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K under Item 2.02, usually on the day of the report. The SEC copy does not change after the fact, which makes it the safer thing to link when you cite a number.
• The quarterly report (Form 10-Q) follows within a few weeks and carries the full financial statements, the segment note and management's discussion of what changed. The fourth quarter is covered by the annual report (Form 10-K) instead.
• Restated comparisons are flagged in the notes on this page. When a company redraws its segments or changes how it adjusts EPS, it restates the year-ago column, so the year-ago figure in a new release can differ from the one printed a year ago. This page always uses the comparison in the newer release, because that is the like-for-like one.

A walk-through of every line in a release, with what each one tells you, is in how to read an earnings report.