UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) Trading Up 1.1% After Dividend Announcement

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH)’s stock price was up 1.1% during trading on Friday after the company announced a dividend. The company traded as high as $301.55 and last traded at $299.16. Approximately 3,691,285 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 47% from the average daily volume of 6,942,156 shares. The stock had previously closed at $295.84.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Tuesday, June 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be paid a dividend of $2.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 16th. This represents a $8.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.92%. This is a positive change from UnitedHealth Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.10. UnitedHealth Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.02%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on UNH shares. Wolfe Research lowered their target price on UnitedHealth Group from $501.00 to $390.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Raymond James lowered UnitedHealth Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on UnitedHealth Group from $563.00 to $374.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on UnitedHealth Group from $600.00 to $400.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, UnitedHealth Group has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $428.43.

UnitedHealth Group Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.83. The company has a market cap of $275.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a fifty day moving average of $409.03 and a two-hundred day moving average of $484.21.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $7.20 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $7.29 by ($0.09). The company had revenue of $109.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 in the previous year, the firm posted $6.91 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that UnitedHealth Group Incorporated will post 29.54 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other UnitedHealth Group news, CEO Stephen J. Hemsley bought 86,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The shares were bought at an average price of $288.57 per share, for a total transaction of $25,019,019.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 679,493 shares in the company, valued at approximately $196,081,295.01. This trade represents 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 available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kristen Gil bought 3,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $271.17 per share, for a total transaction of $1,003,329.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 3,818 shares in the company, valued at $1,035,327.06. This represents a 3,135.59% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have purchased 109,408 shares of company stock valued at $31,607,768. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On UnitedHealth Group

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in UnitedHealth Group by 6.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 90,729,585 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $47,519,620,000 after buying an additional 5,583,343 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in UnitedHealth Group by 10.6% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 25,847,940 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $13,537,859,000 after buying an additional 2,486,839 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in UnitedHealth Group by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,956,219 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $10,068,869,000 after buying an additional 319,515 shares during the period. Capital International Investors raised its stake in UnitedHealth Group by 6.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 15,616,007 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $7,899,905,000 after buying an additional 906,365 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in UnitedHealth Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $6,375,744,000. Institutional investors own 87.86% of the company’s stock.

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.