UnitedHealth Group Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:UNH)

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors purchased 123,300 call options on the company. This is an increase of 33% compared to the average volume of 92,702 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Hsbc Global Res downgraded UnitedHealth Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Argus downgraded UnitedHealth Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 21st. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on UnitedHealth Group from $525.00 to $355.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Bank of America downgraded UnitedHealth Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the company from $560.00 to $350.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on UnitedHealth Group from $563.00 to $374.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, UnitedHealth Group presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $451.43.

UnitedHealth Group Stock Up 1.9%

Shares of NYSE UNH opened at $321.76 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $291.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.56. 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $464.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $510.17. 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 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). The business had revenue of $109.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 company posted $6.91 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that UnitedHealth Group will post 29.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

UnitedHealth Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were given a $2.10 dividend. This represents a $8.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. UnitedHealth Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 35.18%.

Insider Transactions at UnitedHealth Group

In other UnitedHealth Group news, Director Timothy Patrick Flynn purchased 1,533 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 14th. The stock was bought at an average price of $320.80 per share, with a total value of $491,786.40. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 6,033 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,935,386.40. The trade was a 34.07% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO John F. Rex acquired 17,175 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $291.12 per share, with a total value of $4,999,986.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 203,796 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $59,329,091.52. This trade represents a 9.20% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have bought 109,408 shares of company stock valued at $31,607,768. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in UNH. Norges Bank purchased a new position in UnitedHealth Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $6,375,744,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in UnitedHealth Group by 56,142.1% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 8,295,153 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $4,344,586,000 after acquiring an additional 8,280,404 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in UnitedHealth Group during the first quarter worth approximately $3,846,764,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 6.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 90,729,585 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $47,519,620,000 after buying an additional 5,583,343 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of UnitedHealth Group in the fourth quarter valued at $1,914,740,000. 87.86% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.