UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) Stock Price Down 3% Following Analyst Downgrade

Shares of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) fell 3% during trading on Thursday after Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded the stock from a buy rating to a hold rating. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft now has a $333.00 price target on the stock. UnitedHealth Group traded as low as $343.60 and last traded at $344.5740. 11,368,248 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 8% from the average session volume of 12,421,708 shares. The stock had previously closed at $355.26.

UNH has been the topic of several other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $310.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $423.00 to $417.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $267.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Oppenheimer decreased their price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $400.00 to $325.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of UnitedHealth Group from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Friday, October 24th. Eighteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $397.12.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On UnitedHealth Group

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in UNH. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of UnitedHealth Group during the 2nd quarter valued at $3,837,207,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of UnitedHealth Group during the 1st quarter valued at $3,846,764,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in UnitedHealth Group by 6.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 90,729,585 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $47,519,620,000 after acquiring an additional 5,583,343 shares during the last quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc bought a new stake in UnitedHealth Group in the 2nd quarter worth $1,572,193,000. Finally, Dodge & Cox grew its holdings in UnitedHealth Group by 117.7% in the 2nd quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 8,750,560 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $2,729,912,000 after acquiring an additional 4,730,192 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.86% of the company’s stock.

UnitedHealth Group Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $312.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $342.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $331.10.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $2.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.87 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $113.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $113.19 billion. UnitedHealth Group had a net margin of 4.04% and a return on equity of 19.23%. The company’s revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $7.15 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that UnitedHealth Group Incorporated 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, September 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 15th were given a $2.21 dividend. This represents a $8.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 15th. UnitedHealth Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.14%.

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.