UnitedHealth Group’s (UNH) “Buy” Rating Reaffirmed at Truist Financial

Truist Financial reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) in a research note released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $360.00 price target on the healthcare conglomerate’s stock, down from their prior price target of $580.00.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on UNH. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $525.00 to $355.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. TD Cowen lowered shares of UnitedHealth Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $308.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday. Raymond James lowered shares of UnitedHealth Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of UnitedHealth Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Oppenheimer dropped their price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $600.00 to $400.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $454.23.

UnitedHealth Group Stock Up 8.2%

Shares of NYSE: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 firm has a market capitalization of $286.47 billion, a PE ratio of 20.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.56. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $467.51 and its two-hundred day moving average is $511.49. UnitedHealth Group has a 1 year low of $248.88 and a 1 year high of $630.73.

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

UnitedHealth Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a dividend of $2.10 per share. This represents a $8.40 annualized dividend 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 Buying and Selling

In other news, Director John H. Noseworthy purchased 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 14th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $312.16 per share, for a total transaction of $93,648.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,063 shares in the company, valued at $1,892,626.08. This represents a 5.21% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO John F. Rex purchased 17,175 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $291.12 per share, with a total value of $4,999,986.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 203,796 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $59,329,091.52. This represents a 9.20% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders purchased a total of 109,408 shares of company stock valued at $31,607,768 over the last three months. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of UnitedHealth Group

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of UNH. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 5,583,343 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 2,486,839 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 319,515 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 906,365 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in UnitedHealth Group in the fourth quarter worth $6,375,744,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.86% of the company’s stock.

About UnitedHealth Group

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.