July Markets Report
CNC, UNH, ELV, NVDA, CMG, NVO, PANW, CYBR
Currently, this report doesn’t cover the screen properly on desktop layout. This issue will be fixed when we update to a newer Quarto version. Thank you for your patience.
Centene Plummets After Withdrawing Guidance
Centene (CNC), a healthcare company based in Missouri, plunged 40.37% on July 2nd after withdrawing their 2025 financial guidance. The company blamed rising costs in its insurance business, citing data showing increased medical enrollments and claims.
This comes months after competitor, United Health Group (UNH), pulled their 2025 guidance for similar reasons, resulting in the ousting of the company’s CEO and CFO.
The company, which specializes in Medicare and Medicaid insurance, revealed lower than expected federal reimbursement, translating to a $2.75 hit to their expected EPS, totalling ~$1.8 billion.
In the days following the announcement, Centene shares have continued to slide, down to $25.59/share, 66.33% lower compared to the year prior, and 60.19% lower compared to five years ago.
Centene (CNC) 5-Year Performance
Peers across the healthcare sector are facing similar headwinds. Centene competitor, Elevance Health (ELV), cut their full year profit guidance on July 17th, citing rising medical costs. Shares of the company fell 19.58% in the days following the announcement.
Currently, majority of healthcare and insurance companies are seeing depressed valuations at multi-year lows, with the industry’s future being cast into doubt.
NVIDIA Hits $4T Market-Cap
The tech sector and the healthcare industry tell a tale of two worlds, one seeing all-time highs, while the other experiences disastrous lows.
NVIDIA (NVDA), a wall street darling, reached a market-cap or valuation of $4 trillion on July 9th, nearly a year after hitting $3-trillion in June of 2024. The company has been at the forefront of the AI boom, riding waves of investor enthusiasm for their GPU products and data-center services.
NVIDIA (NVDA) 5-Year Performance
Today, the share price is currently at $182.74/share, and the current market-cap is an astounding $4.46 trillion. Revenue and EPS figures have continued to climb at double digit Y/Y pace, with recent quarters continuing to outperform analyst expectations. Majority of NVIDIA’s revenue comes from their data-center segment.
NVIDIA (NVDA) Revenue by Quarter
It is worth mentioning however, the company’s data-center revenue growth is beginning to plateau, while remaining in the high double-digits.
NVIDIA (NVDA) Data-Center Revenue Growth by Quarter
NVDIA has delivered excellent results for investors in recent years, consistently showing high revenue growth. However, the extent to which future performance is priced in remains uncertain, making it a higher-risk, higher-return investment.
Chipotle Drops After Earnings
Famous for its food but infamous for its portions, Chipotle (CMG) reported Q2 earnings on July 23rd. Revenue climbed a respectable 3.04% Y/Y, while net-income declined by 4.29% Y/Y.
Shares of the company fell 13.34% following the report, when the company announced it was expecting sales to be “about flat” this year, reducing guidance the company issued before.
EXTRA: What is “Guidance”
Guidance is what a company projects its finances will be in the future. A company may issue guidance for an upcoming quarter. Additionally, companies commonly issue full-year guidance, which projects the company’s expected full-year financials.
For example, company ABC states in their Q1 earnings report that they expect full-year 2025 revenue to be $10 billion. However, in Q2, company ABC may reduce the outlook to only $8 billion. As a result, shares of company ABC may plummet in response to this decrease in guidance.
While shares of the company are green in the last five years, the stock has not yet recovered from their all time high in June last year, months before their CEO departed the company for Starbucks.
US and EU Reach Deal
On July 28th, it was announced that the United States and the European Union reached a trade deal after months of negotiations and sometimes threats.
Inside the deal, a tariff agreement was reached, where the EU is set to pay a rate of 15% on imported goods into the US. These imported goods are mainly comprised of pharmaceuticals, auto-parts, and semi-conductor chips.
Furthermore, the EU imports wine and spirits, which earlier this year in March, were threatened to carry a 200% tariff, but are now set to carry 15% instead. However, tariffs on un-refined copper, steel, and aluminum have been set at a significantly higher rate of 50%.
As part of the deal, the EU will additionally invest $600 billion in the US in the next four years, and are projected to purchase $750 billion worth of energy exports from the US until 2028.
Novo Nordisk Falls After Lowering Guidance
Novo Nordisk (NVO or NONOF), a pharmaceutical company based in Denmark, famous for their GLP-1 diabetes and weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, fell 21.83% on July 28th, following an announcement that the company was revising its guidance downwards. Shares of the company experienced their worst day since Black Monday of 1987.
The company’s outlook for full-year sales growth was lowered to 8% - 14%, a far cry from the previously projected range of 13% - 21%. Furthermore, full-year net-income growth was lowered to 10% - 16%, compared to the previous range of 16% - 24%.
The company blamed the continued use of compounded drug alternatives, including versions of its products sold by Hims and Hers Health (HIMS). Novo Nordisk states that these compounded drugs, which are not FDA approved, may contain unsafe and untested ingredients.
According to the companies, the relationship has dramatically shifted over the past few months:
In April 2025, Novo Nordisk partnered with Hims’ to supply brand Wegovy for a reduced price on Hims’ platform.
In May 2025, following Novo Nordisk’s declaration that Wegovy was no longer in shortage, the FDA banned the mass-creation of compounded versions. Novo Nordisk says Hims’ continued to sell compounded products despite the ban.
In June 2025, Novo Nordisk terminated its partnership with Hims’, alleging continued sales of compounded versions by Hims’ that it says significantly impacted market share.
Novo Nordisk called Hims and Hers Health’s actions “unsafe and unlawful”. Hims and Her Health disputed that statement, calling Novo Nordisk’s statements “misleading”.
Shortly before the guidance revision, Novo Nordisk’s CEO was replaced by the company’s former “Executive Vice President of International Operations”.
Interest Rates Held Steady in July
The Federal Reserve voted to keep interest rates unchanged during their July meeting. This comes amid increasing pressure on Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell to cut interest rates.
This is the fifth time this year the Federal Reserve has voted to keep interest rates unchanged at 4.25% - 4.50%, with only three meetings left for the year.
The last rate cut was in December 2024, during which the central bank projected two rate cuts in 2025.
As of writing, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, there is currently an 88.9% 86.1% chance the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at their upcoming September 17th meeting.
Interest rate changes are extremely significant to the economy as a whole, since they can alter the trajectory of inflation and the job market. To read more about interest rates, see our December Report interest rate breakdown.
Palo Alto Networks to Acquire Cyberark
In a $25-billion deal, cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks (PANW) intends to acquire identity-management company, Cyberark (CYBR) Software.
The deal is one of the largest cybersecurity deals to date, just trailing behind Alphabet’s (Google’s parent) $32 billion acquisition of Wiz.
Before the intended deal was announced, the market cap of PANW was $136.62 billion, and CYBR was $19.30 billion. Palo Alto Network plans to integrate Cyberark’s services into its existing platform.
However, shares of Palo Alto Networks declined 15.1% in the days following the announcement due to concerns over the potential deal.
Palo Alto Networks (PANW) YTD Performance [With Focused Segment]
Some analysts believe Palo Alto is overpaying, with Cyberark generating less the a seventh of Palo Alto’s revenue per year (according to Forbes). Additionally, the move could be viewed as an act of concern by Palo Alto. Seeking to acquire an outside company with significantly higher growth margins could reflect slowing growth at Palo Alto Networks.
However, some analysts see potential for the acquisition to improve Palo Alto Network’s competitive position within the sector.
- Conclusion -
Acknowledgement and fixes.
These reports take time to write. Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Please send feedback here
ONGOING ISSUES:
Page layout needs to cover screen better, especially the left and right sides, leaving less white space. This issue will be fixed when we update Quarto.
~ Special thanks to Kushanu and Charlie for their valuable feedback ~
~ Made with care by Aedan ~