UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH)

Financial Reporting Quality: Aggregate Accruals

Difficulty: Advanced

Earnings can be decomposed into cash and accrual components. The accrual component (aggregate accruals) has been found to have less persistence than the cash component, and therefore (1) earnings with higher accrual component are less persistent than earnings with smaller accrual component, all else equal; and (2) the cash component of earnings should receive a higher weighting evaluating company performance.

Balance-Sheet-Based Accruals Ratio
Cash-Flow-Statement-Based Accruals Ratio

Balance-Sheet-Based Accruals Ratio

UnitedHealth Group Inc., balance sheet computation of aggregate accruals

USD $ in millions

		Dec 31, 2018	Dec 31, 2017	Dec 31, 2016	Dec 31, 2015	Dec 31, 2014
	Operating Assets
	Total assets
	Less: Cash and cash equivalents
	Less: Short-term investments
	Operating assets
	Operating Liabilities
	Total liabilities
	Less: Commercial paper and current maturities of long-term debt
	Less: Long-term debt, less current maturities
	Operating liabilities

	Net operating assets¹
	Balance-sheet-based aggregate accruals²
	Ratio
	Balance-sheet-based accruals ratio³
	Benchmarks
	Balance-Sheet-Based Accruals Ratio, Competitors
	Becton, Dickinson & Co.
	Intuitive Surgical Inc.
	Medtronic PLC
	Stryker Corp.
	Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.
	Balance-Sheet-Based Accruals Ratio, Sector
	Health Care Equipment & Services
	Balance-Sheet-Based Accruals Ratio, Industry
	Health Care

Based on: 10-K (filing date: 2019-02-12), 10-K (filing date: 2018-02-13), 10-K (filing date: 2017-02-08), 10-K (filing date: 2016-02-09), 10-K (filing date: 2015-02-10).

2018 Calculations

¹ Net operating assets = Operating assets – Operating liabilities
= hidden – hidden = hidden

² Balance-sheet-based aggregate accruals = Net operating assets ₂₀₁₈ – Net operating assets ₂₀₁₇
= hidden – hidden = hidden

³ Balance-sheet-based accruals ratio = 100 × Balance-sheet-based aggregate accruals ÷ Avg. net operating assets
= 100 × hidden ÷ [( hidden + hidden ) ÷ 2] = hidden

Ratio	Description	The company
Balance-sheet-based accruals ratio	Ratio is found by dividing balance-sheet-based aggregate accruals by average net operating assets.	Using the balance-sheet-based accruals ratio, UnitedHealth Group Inc. deteriorated earnings quality from 2017 to 2018.

Cash-Flow-Statement-Based Accruals Ratio

UnitedHealth Group Inc., cash flow statement computation of aggregate accruals

USD $ in millions

		Dec 31, 2018	Dec 31, 2017	Dec 31, 2016	Dec 31, 2015	Dec 31, 2014
	Net earnings attributable to UnitedHealth Group common shareholders
	Less: Cash flows from operating activities
	Less: Cash flows used for investing activities
	Cash-flow-statement-based aggregate accruals
	Ratio
	Cash-flow-statement-based accruals ratio¹
	Benchmarks
	Cash-Flow-Statement-Based Accruals Ratio, Competitors
	Becton, Dickinson & Co.
	Intuitive Surgical Inc.
	Medtronic PLC
	Stryker Corp.
	Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.
	Cash-Flow-Statement-Based Accruals Ratio, Sector
	Health Care Equipment & Services
	Cash-Flow-Statement-Based Accruals Ratio, Industry
	Health Care

Based on: 10-K (filing date: 2019-02-12), 10-K (filing date: 2018-02-13), 10-K (filing date: 2017-02-08), 10-K (filing date: 2016-02-09), 10-K (filing date: 2015-02-10).

2018 Calculations

¹ Cash-flow-statement-based accruals ratio = 100 × Cash-flow-statement-based aggregate accruals ÷ Avg. net operating assets
= 100 × hidden ÷ [( hidden + hidden ) ÷ 2] = hidden

Ratio	Description	The company
Cash-flow-statement-based accruals ratio	Ratio is found by dividing cash-flow-statement-based aggregate accruals by average net operating assets.	Using the cash-flow-statement-based accruals ratio, UnitedHealth Group Inc. deteriorated earnings quality from 2017 to 2018.

	UnitedHealth Group Inc.	Other companies (not purchased previously)
Financial Statements
Common-Size Financial Statements
Ratios
Relative Valuation
Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Valuation
Economic Value Added (EVA)
Long-term Trends
Analysis
Financial Reporting Quality

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Financial Statements
Common-Size Financial Statements
Ratios
Relative Valuation
Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Valuation
Economic Value Added (EVA)
Long-term Trends
Analysis
Financial Reporting Quality