** Shares of UnitedHealth Group UNH.N are up about 0.5% in afternoon trading Wed, with the health insurer seen posting a rise in Q1 rev and EPS when it reports results before the bell Thurs

** At the same time, the broader market was down sharply in following declines in chipmakers and comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell on the economy

** Analysts on an average expect qtrly rev for UNH of $111.60 bln vs $100.08 bln a yr ago; they expect adj EPS of $7.29/shr vs $7.16 a yr ago, according to LSEG

** Last week, UNH shares jumped along with some other health insurers after a bigger-than-expected increase in the government's reimbursement rates for Medicare Advantage plans in 2026 signaled some relief for the sector, which was hit with higher costs in the wake of COVID-19

** "This will be the first we've heard a health insurance management team comment since that news, so I think investors are going to be super interested to hear what they say and what's going on in that business, and what they're seeing in terms of administration behavior," said Jed Ellerbroek, a portfolio manager at Argent Capital Advisors

** Analyst recommendations on UNH include 28 "strong buy" or "buy" ratings and 1 "sell" rating, per LSEG

** The median 12-mo price target on the stock is $642; the stock was last at $586.54

** Bernstein this week raised its price target on UNH to $703 from $697

** UNH options imply a 4.2% swing for the shares, in either direction by Thursday, per Trade Alert data; that is lower than the stock's avg move of 5.2%, on the day of results over the last eight qtrs, per Trade Alert

** For the YTD, UNH shares are up 16% compared with a roughly 6% decline in the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; additional reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed)

((caroline.valetkevitch@thomsonreuters.com))