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Luke Kawa

UnitedHealth surges after insiders step up with massive buys of the S&P 500’s worst performer

It seems like everything has been going wrong for UnitedHealth.

Heading into Monday’s session, it’s the worst performer in the S&P 500 this year, down more than 40%.

The company cut its 2025 outlook in mid-April after saying that heightened demand for Medicare Advantage plans were poised to be a larger-than-anticipated drag on earnings. Then it withdrew guidance completely (citing Medicare Advantage yet again) and announced the departure of CEO Andrew Witty for personal reasons last week. The hits didn’t stop coming, with reports later that same day of a Department of Justice investigation into the company for potential Medicare fraud.

But shares are surging in early trading to open the week, topping the S&P 500’s leaderboard.

As can often be the case when it seems like the world is against you, UnitedHealth’s remaining management team seems to be adopting an “us against the world” mentality and putting their money where their mouths are:

  • Board members Timothy Flynn and Dr. John Noseworthy (note: now that’s an aptronym!) bought 1,533 and 300 shares last Wednesday, respectively, before the stock cratered to fresh post-Covid lows on Thursday following reports of the DOJ investigation.

  • Kristen Gil, who also serves on UnitedHealth’s board, stepped into the breach on May 15 with a purchase of 3,700 shares. Though these shares are indirectly held in a trust, this was not part of a scheduled 10b5-1 trading plan.

  • And to close out the week, new CEO Stephen Hemsley bought about $25 million in company stock, while President and CFO John Rex added a cool $5 million to his holdings.

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Opendoor surges on bullish options bets as traders look to potential real estate tokenization

Opendoor Technologies is surging on Friday amid bullish options bets and social media posts referencing unconfirmed rumors about the company.

The stock moved higher in the premarket session after the soft inflation report boosted stocks and briefly pushed long-term bond yields lower (positive for a real estate company). But the real gains came after the opening bell rang and options demand picked up.

As of 12:11 p.m. ET, roughly 664,000 call options have changed hands versus a 10-day average of about 364,000 for a full session.

What seems to be galvanizing members of the “$OPEN Army” is the potential for the company to pursue the tokenization of real-world assets, with Robinhood often bandied about as a potential partner in this endeavor.

(Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company subject to certain legal and regulatory restrictions.)

Opendoor bulls have often pointed to signs that Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev appears to be fond of the company, from what appeared on-screen during a demo of a social trading feature at HOOD’s conference in Las Vegas in September to offering support to Opendoor CEO Kaz Nejatian in setting up an opportunity for retail shareholders to ask questions during the online real estate company’s next earnings call.

Opendoor is currently in a quiet period ahead of earnings, which restricts what type of announcements a company can make.

The call options seeing the most demand expire this Friday with strike prices of $8, $8.50, and $9.

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Luke Kawa

Beyond Meat gains amid slightly better-than-expected Q3 sales, positive commentary on legal issues

Shares of Beyond Meat built on their premarket gains after the plant-based meat seller reported preliminary Q3 sales a bit ahead of Wall Street’s expectations, before paring this advance after the market opened.

For the three months ended September 27, management said net revenue would be approximately $70 million. That’s in line with their guidance range of $68 million to $73 million, but Wall Street was expecting sales to skew toward the lower end of that range, at $68.7 million.

However, its anticipated gross margin of 10% to 11% is lower than analysts had been expecting (13.8%). That’s still the case even adjusting for expenses related to its downsizing of operations in China, which would have left margins around 12% to 13%, per Beyond.

Perhaps more importantly, the company provided positive commentary regarding arbitration discussions with a former co-manufacturer that appear to bring it closer to a resolution while limiting potential damages:

“As previously disclosed, in March 2024, a former co-manufacturer brought an action against the Company in a confidential arbitration proceeding claiming that the Company inappropriately terminated its agreement with the co-manufacturer and claimed damages of at least $73.0 million. On September 15, 2025, the arbitrator issued an interim award (the ‘Interim Award’) and found that the Company had a valid basis to terminate the agreement with the Manufacturer. The details of the Interim Award are confidential, and a final arbitration award has not been issued. Additional proceedings will be held to determine the award of attorneys’ fees, prejudgment interest and costs, if any, before a final arbitration award will be issued. On September 25, 2025, the Manufacturer filed a request with the arbitrator to re-open the arbitration hearing. On September 29, 2025, the Company opposed this request. On October 20, 2025, the arbitrator denied the Manufacturer’s request.”

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