UnitedHealth Group Inc. said it contacted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission with concerns about investor Bill Ackman’s since-deleted post on X suggesting that the company overstated profits.
UnitedHealth shares slipped as much as 4.3% Wednesday after Ackman’s post suggested shorting the health insurer’s stock while questioning its profitability.
“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,” Ackman wrote Tuesday.
A UnitedHealth spokesperson said the company reached out to regulators about the billionaire’s post.
“Health insurance has long been subject to significant regulatory oversight and earnings caps,” the company said in a statement, adding that claims that insurers “can somehow over-earn are grossly uninformed.”
A representative for Ackman had no immediate comment.
Ackman, 58, gave up short selling after a disastrous bet against the weight-loss shakes and vitamins company Herbalife Ltd. He made a $1 billion bet against the company in 2012 and spent more than five years trying to prove it was a pyramid scheme. Instead, the shares more than doubled, with billionaire Carl Icahn and other investors taking the other side of the trade.