Elevance maintains profit forecast after rival UnitedHealth’s outlook cut

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(Reuters) -Elevance Health on Thursday forecast a first-quarter profit above estimates and maintained its annual profit view, hours after industry bellwether UnitedHealth cut its outlook and sparked a selloff in shares of health insurers.

UnitedHealth also missed its quarterly earnings earlier on Thursday, due to higher-than-expected medical costs in its Medicare Advantage plans for older adults and individuals with disabilities.

Elevance said while cost trends in Medicare Advantage remain elevated, the company’s first quarter performance was in-line with expectations and the pricing of its plans.

The company forecast first-quarter adjusted profit of $11.97 per share, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $11.37, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Elevance maintained its annual adjusted profit expectation between $34.15 and $34.85 per share.

The company will release its full results for the quarter on April 22.

Shares of the insurer were down 3.2% in morning trading. They had earlier dropped more than 5% after UnitedHealth’s results.

(Reporting by Christy Santhosh and Siddhi Mahatole in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas and Shinjini Ganguli)