UnitedHealth Group shares soared Friday after legendary investor Warren Buffett revealed a significant stake in the troubled insurer.
The health-care stock ended the day up 12%, its best daily performance since March 2020. UnitedHealth, often viewed as an industry bellwether, also helped lift the Dow Jones Industrial Average to an all-tim intraday high on Friday.
The advance came after Buffett's conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway revealed a stake of 5 million shares, worth about $1.6 billion, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The "Big Short" investor Michael Burry and Appaloosa Management's David Tepper also disclosed sizable stakes in the company, in separate SEC filings on Thursday.
Shares of UnitedHealth were down nearly 50% for 2025 through Thursday's close before Buffett's filing. The largest private health insurer has become the face of public blowback in this country against the rising costs of health care. UnitedHealth is currently facing a Justice Department investigation into its Medicare billing practices.
In May, the company pulled its annual earnings outlook and CEO Andrew Witty stepped down. Last month, UnitedHealth gave a new 2025 outlook that was well short of Wall Street estimates, hitting the stock further.
"The move by Berkshire represents a big vote of confidence in UNH and likely could provide a near-term trading floor for most of the MCO space and, given Berkshire's investment track record, could serve as a near-term bottom and rallying point for other investors that the space is safe to invest in again," George Hill, a health-care analyst at Deutsche Bank, said in a note to clients.