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UnitedHealth Group has raised concerns with the top US securities regulator over a social media post by activist investor Bill Ackman, who claimed that the healthcare group could be inflating its profits.
Ackman, the billionaire founder of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, said on social media platform X on Tuesday: “If I still shorted stocks, I would short United Healthcare. The [Securities and Exchange Commission] should do a thorough investigation of the company.”
“I would not be surprised to find that the company’s profitability is massively overstated due to its denial of medically necessary procedures and patient care,” he added. Ackman deleted the post.
“Health insurance has long been subject to significant regulatory oversight and earnings caps,” said UnitedHealth. “Any claims that health insurers, which typically have low- to mid-single digit margins, can somehow over-earn are grossly uninformed about the structure and strong regulatory oversight of the sector.”
A person close to UnitedHealth said the healthcare group had referred Ackman’s comments to the SEC, the US securities watchdog. Shares in UnitedHealth were down 2.2 per cent on Wednesday, giving the group a market value of just over $490bn.
Ackman’s post comes only months after Brian Thompson, chief executive of UnitedHealth’s insurance unit, was shot dead in Manhattan. His murder unleashed a torrent of resentment on social media towards health insurers.
A representative for Ackman declined to comment. The SEC declined to comment.
Ackman has a long history of using social media and public appearances to make provocative and often market-moving statements, for which he has stirred controversy.
At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, he declared “hell is coming” and recommended global lockdowns to combat the virus in an appearance on CNBC that knocked markets.
Ackman, however, drew criticism for making his public proclamations at about the same time he had a large bet that US companies would struggle to pay their debts.
But he had also begun buying companies such as Hilton and Starbucks, he said in the CNBC appearance, which had been unfairly pummelled by the market panic.
His fund Pershing Square made $2.6bn on doomsday hedges it had put on in the event markets quickly soured. Ackman was never accused of wrongdoing.
The billionaire investor has also bet against individual companies, often leading public presentations to outline his research.
Presently, Ackman has no short bets against the market or individual companies, according to public disclosures from Pershing Square.
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