Citi Has Hold Rating On United Health Following Earnings (UNH)

Citi Investment Research has a $41 price target and a Hold rating on shares of UnitedHealth

following the company's earnings release. In a note to clients, Citi writes, "While the bulk of United's 2011 guidance increase appears to relate to favorable prior year development, guidance includes a new one-time item — The updated outlook reflects a $0.12-0.15 per share hit related to United's portion of an assessment for a potentially insolvent long-term care company, Penn Treaty. Therefore, underlying guidance is going up by $0.53 at the midpoint, with favorable prior year development accounting for almost half the increase. The assessment on Penn Treaty will also hit other health plans, like WellPoint." Shares of UNH are up $3.76 to $48.00 this morning, a gain of 8.5% on more than 8 million shares.