UnitedHealth Replaces CEO, First Solar Jumps, Simon Property Group Declines

On this episode of Stock Movers:

- UnitedHealth (UNH) shares are down. The company unexpectedly replaced its chief executive and suspended earnings guidance, raising increasing questions over how the company once regarded as a safe bet by investors has got its cost predictions so wrong. UnitedHealth brought back Chairman and former CEO Stephen Hemsley for the top role, saying Andrew Witty has resigned “for personal reasons.” The health insurer, whose top insurance executive was murdered in New York last December, also ripped up its 2025 outlook.

- First Solar (FSLR) shares soared after JPMorgan analyst Mark Strouse said the US budget reconciliation bill is better than “the more bullish end of investor expectations” for solar, wind and geothermal firms. Strouse said First Solar is the “best positioned” name to benefit from the bill, which updates provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act.

- Simon Property Group (SPG) shares declined as much as 5.7% after the retail REIT reported first-quarter results. While the company maintained annual real estate funds from operation guidance, it expects results to “trend towards the middle of the range” due to current macro and tariff uncertainty. Citi said this could be below expectations given the strong first-quarter results.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
The Stock Movers podcast, your roundup of companies making moves
in the stock market, harnessing the power of Bloomberg Data.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
I'm Jim Stademick along with Carol Master. Let's take a
look at some stocks on the move today with us,
We've got Bloomberg News, Acuatory's reporter Norah Melinda Noura, United
Health making big moves today.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
What's going on one hundred percent?

Speaker 4 (00:30):
Of course, this has been a name that everyone's really
been focused on today, and that's after a CEO swap,
and so we had Andrew Whitty. He's resigning for quote
unquote personal reasons and he'll be replaced by Stephen Hemsley,
who's actually a former CEO and chairman of the company.
But of course this company has really been riddled with
a lot of uncertainty. You've got investors that were really

(00:51):
looking at this as a safe bet and a safe
company to invest in, but the company suspended its guidance.
Of course, we know it has been in the news
earlier this year a few weeks it cut its annual guide.
Just lots going on here, especially when you compare it
to its competitors like Elevants and Humana, they didn't report
these same types of challenges that we're seeing here from
United Health, and now people are kind of looking to

(01:12):
look at the CFO and see, you know, is he
going to be out as well?

Speaker 5 (01:16):
Wow, it's been on a it's just having a rough time,
I mean right to December.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Yeah, it's been a big challenge.

Speaker 4 (01:23):
For thirty eight percent is the loss that we're seeing
so far here today.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
And we don't know exactly what happened here, do we?

Speaker 4 (01:28):
No personal reasons.

Speaker 5 (01:30):
I love. Personal reasons can mean so much, but it
can be eye broad raised we don't know well, but
it could also be like family maybe anything. Yeah, there's
a lot of stuff going on. Yeah, it's been certainly
having a tough time for a while.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
So we'll wait to see. To be continued. First solo,
I have to say this is definitely on my radars.

Speaker 4 (01:47):
Okay, okay, Well, this is the best performer in the
SEME by hundred right now. We're seeing this stock rallying
more than twenty percent, up as much as twenty three
percent today. That's the best day that we're seeing on
an inter day basis since May of twenty twenty three.
This is after a JP Morgan analyst Mark Strauss. He
said that the US budget reconciliation bill is better than
the more bullish end of investor expectations for solar, wind

(02:10):
and geothermal firms. So we're seeing a lot of Wall
Street kind of coming behind the stock. We're seeing Wolf
that actually upgraded the name to outperform. And you know,
when we look on a year to day, it's scale
shares are up about six percent. But I mean, this
is a really great day for the stock. Here.

Speaker 5 (02:23):
Can I just say, because I'm a little obsessed with
this name because I kind of like a lot of energy,
but First Solar in the last five days is up
almost fifty percent.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Zero, Oh it's crazy. I mean, not a tear, super terar.

Speaker 5 (02:36):
I'm just trying to see in terms of the short
position of people are getting. That's about eleven percent of
the float. But nonetheless, man on a tear in a
big way.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah, okay, I want to go to Simon Property Group? Yes,
why is that one on your list?

Speaker 4 (02:47):
So this is one of the names in my coverage.
I know being biased here, but Simon Property Group is
actually a retail.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
It's on your radar all the time and radar all.

Speaker 4 (02:56):
The time, especially as we're looking through earnings. But this
is a retail rate here, so they they own a
lot of Mall's regional shopping centers. They're based in Indianapolis, Indiana,
but they have a market cap of about fifty two
point nine billion dollars. But we're looking at this company
because it is one of the names that is in
the red today and that's after its first quarter results
that it reported. It maintains annual FFO, which is a

(03:19):
really big metric for Reads more generally, but it's saying
that it expects results to trend towards the middle of
the range, and they're quite quoting current macro and tariff uncertainty.
We've got a lot of analysts coming out just essentially
saying that they don't know what's going on with the consumer,
what's going on with retailers in the event that all
of these tariff concerns end up trickling out in a
different way.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
FFO funds from operations.

Speaker 5 (03:40):
It's a key metric for reads, right, one hundreds of
it's operations.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
So yeah, interesting stat Yeah, you.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
Do it all, but you have a focus on real
estate yes.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Real estate.

Speaker 4 (03:49):
I cover reads residential real estate. I also cover aerospace
and defense, so I've got my eyes in a lot
of places.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
The Stock Movers podcast Bloomberg Radio check back with us
throughout the day for the latest roundup of companies making
news on Wall Street and for the latest market moving headlines.
Listen to Bloomberg Radio Live, catch us on YouTube, Bloomberg
dot com, and on Applecarplay and Android Auto with the
Bloomberg Business app.