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J. Edward Moreno

UnitedHealth drops after announcement that regulator will increase Medicare Advantage audits

UnitedHealth fell nearly 3% in after-hours trading after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced that it intends to audit all eligible Medicare Advantage contracts each year.

UnitedHealth is one of the largest providers of Medicare Advantage, which is government-funded health coverage managed by a private insurer. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the Department of Justice is probing UnitedHealth on allegations of gaming the system to get bigger payments from the government.

“We are committed to crushing fraud, waste and abuse across all federal healthcare programs,” Mehmet Oz, CMS administrator, said in a statement.

The company’s stock is down more than 40% this year following a string of negative news, including the Journal’s reporting and the stepping down of its CEO.

On Wednesday during the regular session, shares fell more than 5% after The Guardian reported that UnitedHealth offered financial incentives to nursing homes for avoiding transferring patients to the hospital, saving the company money.

CMS Rolls Out Aggressive Strategy to Enhance and Accelerate Medicare Advantage Audits | CMS

CMS Rolls Out Aggressive Strategy to Enhance and Accelerate Medicare Advantage Audits | CMS

“We are committed to crushing fraud, waste and abuse across all federal healthcare programs,” Mehmet Oz, CMS administrator, said in a statement.

The company’s stock is down more than 40% this year following a string of negative news, including the Journal’s reporting and the stepping down of its CEO.

On Wednesday during the regular session, shares fell more than 5% after The Guardian reported that UnitedHealth offered financial incentives to nursing homes for avoiding transferring patients to the hospital, saving the company money.

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Luke Kawa

The negative reaction after Palantir’s earnings is spreading to other volatile retail favorites

Palantir is the poster child for a richly valued, retail darling, megacap momentum stock. It’s going down on largely good news, and that’s cascading to hit smaller, volatile segments of the market also beloved by the retail community.

Goldman Sachs baskets that track retail favorites and nonprofitable tech stocks are down more than 2% and 3% as of 9:43 a.m. ET, respectively, while the Invesco S&P 500 High Beta ETF is also off more than 2%.

Long Island highway patrol officer using radar to check speed

Stocks are getting speed checked

A retail favorite failing to build momentum even when it “deserves” to, the most important part of the stock market being told it’s overheating, and the heads of banks warning of a broader pullback.

Luke Kawa3h
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Tom Jones

Spotify notches another quarter of strong active user growth and improved profitability

Spotify shares are up 3.25% as of 6:45 a.m. ET as investors digest the streaming giant’s Q3 earnings, in which the company reported that it added more than 70 million monthly active users, posted revenues that were up 7% from last year, and improved profitability.

Total revenues climbed to €4.27 billion, or around $4.91 billion, for the quarter, while net income came in at €899 million ($1.03 billion), which translated into adjusted earnings per share of €3.28 — ahead of the ~€1.96 that analysts had expected, per FactSet figures cited by The Wall Street Journal. Spotify now counts a whopping 713 million monthly active users, including 281 million premium subscribers, compared to 640 million and 252 million, respectively, on the same quarter last year.

The boosted figures come on the back of a host of new features that the streaming platform’s introduced, such as “lossless listening,” playlist mixing controls, and direct messages. The company is now forecasting that its total monthly active users will climb to 745 million by the end of the fourth quarter.

With the latest gains today, Spotify is now up ~48% year to date, even as cofounder Daniel Ek announced in September that he’d be stepping down as CEO at the end of the year, almost 20 years on from the company’s inception.

J. Edward Moreno
3h
Pfizer reports earnings beat and boosts guidance as Metsera bid-off heats up

Pfizer reported earnings on Tuesday.

Pfizer Building Facade
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Hyunsoo Rim

Michael Burry, of “Big Short” fame, discloses ~$1.1 billion options bet against Nvidia and Palantir

“The Big Short” investor Michael Burry, famous for predicting the 2008 housing crash — and a number of crashes since that haven’t materialized quite as spectacularly — has placed massive bets against Nvidia and Palantir, according to a new regulatory filing for the quarter ended September 30.

The 13-F filing released Monday discloses that Burry’s fund, Scion Asset Management, bought put options on roughly 5 million Palantir shares worth $912 million, and 1 million Nvidia shares worth $187 million. Together, the two positions make up 80% of Scion’s disclosed US equity holdings, per the 13-F.

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'Big Short' Michael Burry bet against Palantir and Nvidia

'Big Short' Michael Burry bet against Palantir and Nvidia

The 13-F filing released Monday discloses that Burry’s fund, Scion Asset Management, bought put options on roughly 5 million Palantir shares worth $912 million, and 1 million Nvidia shares worth $187 million. Together, the two positions make up 80% of Scion’s disclosed US equity holdings, per the 13-F.

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