ANTIQUES SHOPS

* Sees FY EPS $4.90-$5.00 vs Street view $4.99

* First insurer to report since court ruling on health law

* Shares fall 3.7 percent (Rewrites first paragraphs)

By Lewis Krauskopf

July 19 (Reuters) - Insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc on Thursday signaled that pressures on its health plans would not ease anytime soon as the government reins in reimbursement for Medicaid and Medicare and tough competition persists among plans serving employers.

Shares of the largest health insurer by market value fell more than 3 percent after the comments to Wall Street, overshadowing UnitedHealth's higher-than-expected 6 percent rise in quarterly earnings and raised full-year profit forecast.

It was the first report from a health insurer since the U.S. Supreme Court late last month upheld President Barack Obama's healthcare law, which more tightly regulates the industry and adds new fees while also adding millions of potential new customers by expanding coverage to the uninsured.

Chief Executive Officer Stephen Hemsley told analysts on a conference call that there "continues to be more downward than upward pressure across the healthcare landscape."

"We expect this environment to prevail for some time, due to the employment malaise and imminent regulatory changes," he said.

Hemsley pointed to fiscal constraints on state governments that will squeeze Medicaid plans for the poor and federal government changes to the Medicare Advantage program will hurt reimbursement rates. Executives on the call also raised concerns about aggressive competition among plans serving employers.

Shares of rivals WellPoint Inc and Aetna Inc each were down about 2 percent.

UnitedHealth's commentary contrasted with what analysts roundly praised as strong second-quarter quarter results from the company, which is considered a bellwether because of its size and diversity of health plans.

"If you called me yesterday and said, 'Here is what they were going to do; what do you think?', I would have been dancing in the halls because it was about as good a quarter as I could have expected," said Thrivent Investment Management analyst David Heupel.

UnitedHealth shares tend to trade down on days when the company reports earnings, Heupel and other analysts said.

The company also has outperformed its rivals this year, and before Thursday traded at a more than 35 percent premium to WellPoint and Aetna, so investors may have been looking for more to support the valuation.

Investors have also been wary about the industry after a spotty first-quarter earnings season in which several top companies - though not UnitedHealth - reported profits short of analysts' estimates.

ENROLLMENT GAINS

UnitedHealth's second-quarter net income rose to $1.34 billion, or $1.27 per share, from $1.27 billion, or $1.16 per share, a year earlier. Analysts on average expected a profit of $1.19 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue grew 8 percent to $27.3 billion.

Enrollment in UnitedHealth's plans stood at nearly 35.9 million at the end of June, up about 5 percent. Enrollment increased in its Medicare and Medicaid plans as well as its fee-based plans for employers for which it administers services.

Investors have been encouraged by UnitedHealth's broad range of health plans, including its big business in Medicaid and Medicare, and a diverse profit stream from other healthcare service offerings, such as pharmacy benefits and data and analytics products.

In the quarter, the company spent 81.3 percent of its premiums on medical claims, compared with 81.4 percent a year ago. That was a touch lower than the 81.8 percent expected by Wells Fargo analyst Peter Costa.

Americans' low use of healthcare services has proved to be a boon for health insurers over the past two years by reducing their medical claim costs and increasing profits. But investors have been bracing for utilization to start rising again.

UnitedHealth forecast full-year earnings of $4.90 to $5.00 per share, higher than its previous outlook of $4.80 to $4.95. Analysts were expecting $4.99.

This was the second time the company boosted its 2012 forecast.

UnitedHealth expects revenue of $110 billion for 2012.

The company's shares were down 3.7 percent at $54.25 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. For the year, they are up 7 percent compared with a 1 percent decline in the S&P Health Care index of large insurers. (Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Bernadette Baum and Kenneth Barry)

* Q2 rev $28.552 bln vs Wall Street view $28.558 bln

* Adds 888,000 net subscribers vs analyst view 666,000

* Cuts customer growth target for FiOS

* Shares fall 2.9 percent (Adds closing share price update)

By Sinead Carew

July 19 (Reuters) - Weakness in Verizon Communications Inc's enterprise business offset a better-than-expected wireless quarter, sending the telephone company's shares down 2.9 percent.

After pushing Verizon's shares up 14 percent so far this year, investors focused in on the wireline miss on Thursday even as Verizon handily beat Wall Street estimates for wireless subscriber growth and profitability.

While earnings per share (EPS) met Wall Street expectations for the quarter, analyst said that wasn't enough.

"The view by investors is that wireline stole the EPS benefit of a great wireless quarter," Nomura analyst Michael McCormack said.

Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo told analysts on a conference call that Verizon's enterprise business was hurt by foreign exchange rates and a decision to stop selling some customer equipment and, to a lesser extent, by macroeconomic challenges in Europe.

But McCormack said the world economy's impact may have been understated.

"The global economy may be more sluggish than people believe at this point. It seems (for) anything outside large multinationals, you're seeing very sluggish buying behavior," he said.

Verizon's wireline revenue fell 3.4 percent in the quarter to $9.93 billion compared with Wall Street expectations of $10.03 billion, according to the company.

PRICE INCREASES

While Verizon saw strong revenue growth in its consumer wireline business, Shammo said its addition of 120,000 net new FiOS television customers was weaker than it expected as an unusually high number of people moved from the FiOS region.

Shammo said Verizon was reducing its target estimate for future FiOS TV growth to 150,000 to 170,000 from its previous estimate of 180,000 to 200,000 as the company is increasing its prices to focus more on the profitability of the service.

The executive told Reuters that he expects Verizon's wireline revenue growth rate from consumer services to rise to 5 percent by the end of the year from 2.5 percent in the second quarter as the company plans more price increases.

The company raised prices in the second quarter with service packages that include higher Internet speeds, but Shammo warned there would be more price increases for TV bundles.

"We started in the second quarter but there's more on the plate for the third and fourth quarter," Shammo said.

Guggenheim Securities analyst Sing Yin said consumers may have no choice but to pay higher fees for TV as programmers increase their rates. He also expects them to embrace pricier Internet services.

"They're counting on consumers being willing to pay more for better speed. So far, there is evidence there is demand for higher speeds at higher prices," Yin said.

WIRELESS BEATS ESTIMATES

In response to rumors about a dividend payment, Shammo said that the board of the company's Verizon Wireless venture with Vodafone Group Plc does not plan to discuss a distribution at its next quarterly board meeting.

Vodafone shares fell 1.7 percent in London trading after the comment.

Verizon Wireless added 888,000 net new subscribers in the quarter, compared with the average expectation of about 666,000 of seven analysts.

"That's a terrific number," Roe Equity Research analyst Kevin Roe said, noting that Wall Street does not expect No. 2 mobile provider AT&T Inc to add even half as many customers in the quarter.

The growth at the No. 1 U.S. mobile provider probably came at the expense of smaller rivals Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA in particular, as those companies have been struggling to stem customer losses, Roe said.

The company said that 50 percent of its wireless customers were using smartphones by the end of the second quarter, up from 47 percent at the end of the first quarter. Since smartphone customers spend more than customers with basic phones, Verizon has been pushing to increase its smartphone penetration.

Verizon Wireless launched new shared data service plans June 28 that raised its data fees in exchange for letting customers connect multiple devices under one plan. The plan is aimed at getting consumers to more devices to its network.

While the shared data launch was too late in the quarter to have an effect on the company's results, Shammo said that early consumer feedback had been "great."

Verizon's wireless service margin based on earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization was 49 percent, ahead of average estimates of five analysts for just above 47 percent.

Verizon's second-quarter profit rose to $1.83 billion, or 64 cents per share, from $1.61 billion, or 57 cents per share, a year earlier. The results were in line with analysts' estimates, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue rose to $28.552 billion from $27.54 billion, while analysts were expecting $28.558 billion.

Verizon said on Thursday that its 2012 capital spending would be little changed or lower than its 2011 budget of $16.2 billion. During the company's last earnings call, Shammo had expected 2012 spending to be about the same as in 2011.

The company said it was on track for growth in full-year earnings in the double-digit percentage range, implying a rise of at least 10 percent.

It expected profit margins in its wireline business to continue to improve in the second half of the year after increasing in the second quarter from the first quarter.

Verizon hopes to improve earnings by reducing costs in negotiations for new terms for a labor contract covering 45,000 workers but the company appeared to be nowhere nearer to an agreement on Thursday almost a year after its workers went on strike to protest the cuts Verizon wants to make.

On Thursday afternoon, Verizon's unions said they had requested mediation services for the talks because they had gone on too long. Verizon had no immediate comment, but Shammo had told analysts on the earnings conference call that negotiations were difficult.

Verizon's shares closed down $1.35, or 2.9 percent, at $44.54 on New York Stock Exchange, which was still up 11 percent from the end of 2011. (Reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Maureen Bavdek and David Gregorio)

O'Connell, coach to 800m world record holder David Rudisha, has trained 25 world champions and four Olympic gold medalists during his 36 years in Iten, a small village 8,000 feet above sea level in western Kenya's Rift Valley.

The 63-year-old's idea to create Iten's first training camp in 1989 is now viewed as the catalyst that transformed the village into a global athletics hub.

"When I came there were no athletes training around the road. There were no camps. There were no other coaches. There was nothing, just a school where I was a teacher and I coached the students," O'Connell told Reuters at his humble home within the grounds of St Patrick's High School for boys.

Brimin Kipruto, the Beijing Games winner in the 3,000m steeplechase, is the most recent Olympic champion from O'Connell's youth camp. Favorites to win maiden golds in London are marathon runner Edna Kiplagat and women's 5,000 and 10,000m world champion Vivian Cheruiyot.

Over the past few years Kenyan runners have enjoyed unprecedented levels of success and elite athletes from all over the world travel to Iten to train with Kenyan champions in the hope some of the magic will rub off on them.

Ahead of the London Games, UK Athletics set up a training camp in Iten and British athletes, including marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe and 5,000m world champion Mo Farah could be seen running up and down Rift Valley's gentle hills where cows graze grass by the side of dusty red roads.

But O'Connell said the praise coming his way for Iten's transformation is not fair, modestly pointing out that he never intended to become a running coach when he arrived in the region.

"I just happen to be in an area where athletics was the talent. I happen to be in a sport which is not very expensive; you don't need anything to be a runner. Even as young kids they run barefoot - you don't even need a pair of shoes," he said.

As teenage boys in grey jumpers and green blazers spill out of St Patrick's red-bricked classrooms, O'Connell pointed out that one of them could be a future star.

"There is an element of trial and error. Don't think that everybody I take is a David Rudisha. You take 20 and you get one (champion)," he said.

For St Patrick's students, the reminder of O'Connell's success is omnipresent.

The school pays homage to pupils who come through the system and go on to win a world championship title by planting a tree in their honor. The joke in Iten is that St Patrick's grounds will soon become a forest as future generations etch their name in the school's folklore.

During the 2011 Daegu world championships, 10 of the 17 Kenyan medalists had been coached by O'Connell in Iten, mostly as teenagers in his training camp for juniors.

ATTITUDE AND APPROACH

In the London Games, eight products of his coaching school will represent Kenya. O'Connell, though, does not consider himself an athletics expert and refuses to follow textbook rules.

"It's an attitude, it's an approach, it's the way you deal with an athlete. It's the environment in which you bring them, that's what is important. It's not handing them a program or standing on the side with a whistle and a watch," he said.

Although his Irish skin makes him stand out in the Kenyan countryside, O'Connell said adapting to the African way of life has been instrumental to his coaching success.

"I dumped all my western baggage when I came of how you think, how you want things to happen, what you believe in. I put all those aside and enter into the spirit of what it means in a rural village in the highlands of western Kenya."

Rudisha is the favorite to win a gold medal over two laps in London but O'Connell said he has no intention of going to the Olympic Games for the first time in his life.

"I'm not going. I have no interest. I came to Iten many years ago as a young person to work among youth and that is still my priority.

"It's not going to the Olympics, it's not coaching superstars. If they become a superstar, it's ok. If they don't, not a problem."

(Editing by James Macharia and Justin Palmer)