Shares of UnitedHealth Group, the largest health insurance company in the U.S., surged almost 6% during Tuesday morning trading after the company updated investors on the massive cyberattack it faced earlier this year.
In its second quarterly earnings report, UnitedHealth announced that it has restored the majority of affected services at its subsidiary Change Healthcare, which manages medical records and payments.
UnitedHealth revealed that the total impact of the cyberattack in its second quarter was $0.92 per share and that it has provided over $9 billion in advance funding and interest-free loans to support affected healthcare providers so far.
This financial support and the expense of notifying impacted customers have led UnitedHealth to increase its estimated financial impact to between $1.90 and $2.05 per share for the full year. However, the company reiterated its adjusted net earnings outlook of $27.50 to $28.00 per share, expressing confidence in its ability to absorb the attack’s costs.
For the three months ending June 30, UnitedHealth reported $98.9 billion in revenue, surpassing Wall Street expectations of $98.7 billion, according to FactSet.
“During the quarter, we prioritized devoting resources to support care providers in the wake of the cyber attack over activities such as share repurchase,” said UnitedHealth president and CFO John Franklin Rex on a call with investors. “It was the right thing to do, focusing all our efforts on providing stability for the health system.”
In February, the ransomware group ALPHV breached Change Healthcare, causing delays in prescriptions and paychecks for healthcare workers.
UnitedHealth previously noted that a preliminary review of targeted data found files containing protected health information and personally identifiable information, potentially affecting a large portion of the U.S. population.
In the three months ending June 30, UnitedHealth’s net income fell 22% to $4.2 billion, compared with $5.5 billion in the same period last year. However, the company’s revenue increased 6% year-over-year to $98.9 billion from $93 billion. Its earnings per share were $6.80, exceeding Wall Street expectations of $6.66, according to a consensus estimate from analysts surveyed by FactSet.