Elevance Health Plummets 19.58% in Two Days, Trading Volume Ranks 27th in Market Activity

On July 18, 2025, Elevance Health (ELV) experienced a significant decline, dropping 8.38% over two consecutive days, resulting in a total decrease of 19.58%. The company's trading volume reached 23.60 billion, ranking it 27th in the day's market activity.

Elevance Health Inc. recently released its financial results for the second quarter of 2025, which revealed a net profit of $1.74 billion, marking a 24% decrease from the same period last year. Despite a 13% increase in total revenues to nearly $50 billion, benefit expenses surged by 20%, pushing the company's benefit expense ratio to 88.9% from 86.3% in the spring of 2024. The Carelon group, which recently acquired home health venture CareBridge, saw its operating revenue grow to $18.1 billion from $13.3 billion and its operating gain to about $900 million from roughly $700 million.

Executives at Elevance Health Inc. anticipate a significant surge in utilization by Health Insurance Marketplace members in the fourth quarter, driven by higher cost trends and the loss of some tax credits for coverage. The company's CEO, Gail Koziara Boudreaux, and CFO, Mark Bradley Kaye, have lowered their earnings outlook for the year, citing ongoing cost and activity pressures in their Affordable Care Act and Medicaid businesses. They do not expect a near-term recovery and have adjusted their guidance accordingly.

Elevance Health's second-quarter results also highlighted a market-wide morbidity shift, with newer members of the company's ACA plans using the emergency room at nearly double the level of members of its commercial plans. On the Medicaid side, the company is experiencing higher acuity due to ongoing disenrollment and increased member utilization. The executives expect that price increases will take a relatively long time to impact the company's financials positively.

The expected end of enhanced tax credits is likely to lead to a measurable last-chance uptick in fourth-quarter utilization as more members schedule elective care before facing higher out-of-pocket costs next year. This dynamic has led to concerns about the deterioration of the ACA market, with Congressional Budget Office analysts forecasting that the expiration of premium subsidies will increase the number of uninsured Americans by about 3.8 million.

Elevance Health's CEO, Gail Koziara Boudreaux, has announced a revision to the full-year 2025 adjusted EPS guidance to approximately $30, attributing the change to elevated medical cost trends across the board. The company's stock has lost more than 20% of its value over the past six months, trimming its market capitalization to about $68 billion.