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BUSINESS Wednesday 19 april 2017
A25

UnitedHealth 1Q profit soars as ACA business shrinks

state- and federally funded expanding to 34.
Medicaid coverage both Several other major insur-
swelled for UnitedHealth, ers like Aetna Inc. and Hu-
which also continued to mana Inc. also have pared
grow an Optum segment participation after book-
that sells several services ing deep losses on the ex-
outside the company’s changes, which face an
core health insurance. uncertain future as Repub-
Operating earnings from licans in Congress mull an-
that insurance business- other attempt at repealing
es climbed 15 percent to and replacing the federal
$2.1 billion, even though law.
UnitedHealth’s individual UnitedHealth is a small
enrollment plunged as it player in the exchanges,
withdrew from nearly all which are dominated by
the Affordable Care Act’s Blue Cross-Blue Shield-
health insurance exchang- branded plans. The com-
es. The insurer pulls in most pany gave no insight Tues-
of its enrollment from group day into whether it will re-
insurance coverage of- main on the exchanges
fered through employers. next year, but company
UnitedHealth had warned officials did say they are still
This photo shows part of the UnitedHealth Group, Inc. campus in Minnetonka, Minn. UnitedHealth
Group Inc. reported financial results Tuesday, April 18, 2017. last year that it expected working with policy makers
(AP Photo/Jim Mone) to lose more than $800 mil- to improve the markets.
lion on individual coverage CEO Stephen Hemsley also
TOM MURPHY tion in Affordable Care Act Tuesday, and company sold through the Afford- pushed for the permanent
AP Health Writer exchanges but grew just shares started climbing able Care Act’s exchang- repeal of a health insur-
UnitedHealth’s first-quarter about every other part of shortly after it detailed re- es, and the insurer scaled ance tax that was deferred
profit soared 35 percent as its business. sults. back its participation on this year. He noted that it
the nation’s biggest health The insurer also hiked its Enrollment in Medicare those exchanges this year will affect coverage afford-
insurer slashed participa- 2017 earnings forecast on Advantage plans and the to three states after rapidly ability.
Goldman Sachs’ profits miss forecasts as trading struggled

KEN SWEET man would perform just as year earlier and down 7 Investment banking net from a year earlier. Under-
AP Business Writer well or better. While Gold- percent from the fourth revenue was $1.7 billion in writing revenue rose 37 per-
NEW YORK (AP) — Gold- man trades nearly every quarter. Trading revenues the quarter, up 16 percent cent from a year earlier.
man Sachs had a rare miss kind of financial instrument in bonds, currencies and
in its first quarter results, the on Wall Street, its strongest commodities was effec-
bank said Tuesday, as its traders are in commodi- tively flat in quarter while
typically best-in-class trad- ties and currencies, both of trading revenues for stocks
ing desks did not perform which had wild swings this were down 6 percent from
as well as its competitors. quarter that could have re- a year earlier.
The poor results caused the sulted in the miss. Goldman’s investment
bank’s stock to fall sharply. The bank’s trading division banking business grew
The New York-based in- had net revenue of $3.36 profits in the quarter, but its
vestment bank earned billion in the first quarter, growth was not all the dif-
$2.16 billion compared down 2 percent from a ferent from its competition.
with $1.2 billion in the same
period a year earlier. On
a per-share basis, Gold-
man Sachs earned $5.15 a
share versus $2.68 a share
in the same period a year
earlier. But Goldman’s re-
sults were well below the
$5.31 a share expected
by analysts, according to
FactSet.
In a statement, Goldman
Sachs Chairman and CEO
Lloyd Blankfein called the
quarter “mixed” and that
client activity was “chal-
lenged.”
Goldman’s trading desks
struggled in the first quar-
ter, a sharp contrast to its
competitors who all re-
ported gains in trading last
quarter and set investors’
expectations that Gold-