UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) Lowered to “Hold” Rating by TD Cowen

TD Cowen cut shares of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has $308.00 price target on the healthcare conglomerate’s stock.

UNH has been the subject of several other research reports. Raymond James downgraded shares of UnitedHealth Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. HSBC reissued a “hold” rating and set a $490.00 price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $521.00 to $362.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $600.00 to $400.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $510.00 to $356.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $454.23.

UnitedHealth Group Trading Up 8.2%

UNH opened at $315.80 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The company has a market cap of $286.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.56. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $467.51 and a 200 day simple moving average of $511.49. UnitedHealth Group has a fifty-two week low of $248.88 and a fifty-two week high of $630.73.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $7.20 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.29 by ($0.09). The business had revenue of $109.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.56 billion. UnitedHealth Group had a return on equity of 26.69% and a net margin of 3.60%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $6.91 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that UnitedHealth Group will post 29.54 earnings per share for the current year.

UnitedHealth Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a dividend of $2.10 per share. This represents a $8.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. UnitedHealth Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.18%.

Insider Transactions at UnitedHealth Group

In other UnitedHealth Group news, CEO Stephen J. Hemsley purchased 86,700 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $288.57 per share, with a total value of $25,019,019.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 679,493 shares in the company, valued at $196,081,295.01. The trade was a 14.63% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Timothy Patrick Flynn purchased 1,533 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 14th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $320.80 per share, for a total transaction of $491,786.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 6,033 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,935,386.40. This trade represents a 34.07% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders purchased 109,408 shares of company stock worth $31,607,768. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On UnitedHealth Group

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 6.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 90,729,585 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $47,519,620,000 after purchasing an additional 5,583,343 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 10.6% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 25,847,940 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $13,537,859,000 after purchasing an additional 2,486,839 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,956,219 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $10,068,869,000 after purchasing an additional 319,515 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 6.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 15,616,007 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $7,899,905,000 after purchasing an additional 906,365 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $6,375,744,000. 87.86% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

UnitedHealth Group Company Profile

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated operates as a diversified health care company in the United States. The company operates through four segments: UnitedHealthcare, Optum Health, Optum Insight, and Optum Rx. The UnitedHealthcare segment offers consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services for national employers, public sector employers, mid-sized employers, small businesses, and individuals; health care coverage, and health and well-being services to individuals age 50 and older addressing their needs; Medicaid plans, children's health insurance and health care programs; and health and dental benefits, and hospital and clinical services, as well as health care benefits products and services to state programs caring for the economically disadvantaged, medically underserved, and those without the benefit of employer-funded health care coverage.