UnitedHealth Group (UNH) Falls After Earnings, Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) To Hire 50K seasonal employees

UnitedHealth Group Inc.(NYSE:UNH) profits for third quarter jumps 23% with Baby Boomers starting to pay off for the nation’s largest health insurers. Further the company even raised its forecast for 2012.

Revenues through Medicare and retirement grew by $1.2 billion with growth of over 400,000 people enrolling in Medicare in comparison to last year.

In the last quarter UnitedHealth Group Inc. earned $1.56 billion, or $1.50 per share in comparison to $1.27 billion, or $1.17 per share, for the last year.

The earnings forecast by the analyst were of $1.34 per share, whereas the company’s forecast was of $1.45 per share.

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More over the revenue rose 8% to $27.3 billion which fell short of average analyst expectation of $$27.58 billion.

Revising the forecast for 2012, the company updated its expectation from the range of $4.90 to $5 per share to new range $5.20 to $5.25 per share. Analyst expects $5.13 per share.

A Goldman Sachs analyst, Matthew Borsch stated in his research note about UnitedHealth Group report to set a positive tone for the sector, which also includes WellPoint Inc. and Aetna Inc. It is the first major insurer to report earnings every quarter.

Shares of UnitedHealth Group traded at $56.88 in Tuesday’s session, down about 1%.

Online retail giant Amazon.com, Inc.(NASDAQ:AMZN) to hire more than 50,000 seasonal employees in order to fulfill its centers across the United States with the company and its rivals are gearing up for the winter holiday season. 

Vice president of Global Customer Fulfillment, Dave Clark, quoted "Temporary associates play a critical role in meeting increased customer demand during the holiday season, and we expect thousands of temporary associates will stay on in full-time positions."

In order to meet its distribution and online orders, the retailers hire seasonal staff in the weeks leading up to the holiday shopping season to work in stores.

Amongst the companies hiring staff for the holiday season is Amazon, which plans to hire more than 50,000 staff, Wal-Mart stores planning to add more than 50,000 staff and Target Corp which plan to hire about 80,000 to 90,000 seasonal employees.