markets

Luke Kawa5/19/25

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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SpaceX received more than a dozen positive analyst calls on Tuesday — including from major Wall Street banks — as they initiate coverage on Elon Musk’s space and AI company.

SpaceX went public on June 12 at a $2.2 trillion valuation, the largest debut in history. While the company hasn’t yet posted a profit, it seems to have convinced Wall Street that it will get there and grow its valuation on the way.

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The ratings come as SpaceX joined the Nasdaq 100 index, a benchmark tech-heavy basket of companies that underpins millions of portfolios. The inclusion adds built-in demand for the stock from index funds and ETFs.

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Nike sinks to lowest level since 2014 after warning of “challenged” sales environment in Q4 report

Did Nike do it?

Investors had a mixed reaction after the global sports apparel company reported its fourth quarter earnings on Tuesday after the bell. Shares initially rose 5% as Nike beat out Wall Street expectations amid a hefty tariff refund bonus. However, the stock then sank to its lowest level since August 2014 in postmarket trading.

Here are the Q4 numbers:

Revenue of $11.0 billion (estimate: $10.8 billion).
Adjusted earnings per share of $0.20 (estimate: $0.12).

Ahead of this report, Nike warned that results would be flattered by a one-time tariff refund (now estimated at roughly $0.52 per share for the bottom line). That gave the company an extra cushion in snapping its streak of seven quarters of year-over-year profit declines.

Over the past year, the company had been punished by tariffs on imported goods, stagnant consumer spending, and increasing competition from other footwear brands like New Balance, Adidas, and Hoka.

Outgoing CFO Matthew Friend deemed it an “increasingly challenging operating environment, where sell-through remains challenged.”

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