UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) Stock Price Up 1.3% After Analyst Upgrade

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH)’s stock price traded up 1.3% on Wednesday after Raymond James Financial upgraded the stock from a market perform rating to an outperform rating. Raymond James Financial now has a $330.00 price target on the stock. UnitedHealth Group traded as high as $275.30 and last traded at $274.0370. 5,459,148 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 44% from the average session volume of 9,746,092 shares. The stock had previously closed at $270.59.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on UNH. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on UnitedHealth Group from $400.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 30th. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Evercore upgraded shares of UnitedHealth Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded UnitedHealth Group from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $363.38.

Trending Headlines about UnitedHealth Group

Here are the key news stories impacting UnitedHealth Group this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Raymond James upgraded UNH to Outperform and set a $330 price target, citing better-than-expected expense/margin improvement (especially at Optum Health), which implies meaningful upside to earnings estimates. Raymond James upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Prominent analyst pieces argue UNH is deeply discounted after steep declines and that the pullback creates a buying opportunity for value/long-term investors. That narrative can attract contrarian flows. Investopedia buy argument
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that billionaire Paul Tudor Jones is adding to UNH provide a headline-driven catalyst and signal institutional conviction for some macro-focused allocators. Paul Tudor Jones buys
• Positive Sentiment: Analysis from Zacks highlights UNH’s strong earnings surprise history and argues the company has the setup to beat upcoming quarters—supporting the bullish case tied to margin recovery. Zacks on earnings upside
• Neutral Sentiment: Street coverage remains heavy and mixed: many buy/outperform ratings and a median multi-month price target well above current levels, so analyst sentiment provides a backdrop for both rallies and volatility. QuiverQuant analyst/target summary
• Negative Sentiment: Social-media and trader chatter intensified after shares fell below Berkshire’s purchase price, spotlighting year-to-date and prior-year declines; that panic plus recent large institutional sell-offs increases downside volatility risk. QuiverQuant social discussion
• Negative Sentiment: Legal/regulatory risk remains unresolved: the Ninth Circuit will weigh whether United can use a broad preemption defense in a Medicare Advantage fraud case—an adverse ruling could increase liability exposure and regulatory scrutiny. Ninth Circuit legal risk

Institutional Investors Weigh In On UnitedHealth Group

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in UnitedHealth Group by 176.2% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 44,249 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $22,384,000 after acquiring an additional 28,231 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 137.1% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 4,019 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $2,033,000 after purchasing an additional 2,324 shares in the last quarter. CMT Capital Markets Trading GmbH bought a new stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $340,000. Quantbot Technologies LP lifted its stake in UnitedHealth Group by 261.1% in the 2nd quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 16,377 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $5,109,000 after purchasing an additional 11,842 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Peloton Wealth Strategists grew its stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 12.2% during the second quarter. Peloton Wealth Strategists now owns 11,580 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $3,613,000 after buying an additional 1,260 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.86% of the company’s stock.

UnitedHealth Group Stock Up 1.3%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The company has a market capitalization of $248.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.40. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $286.16 and its 200-day moving average price is $320.70.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 27th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $2.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.09 by $0.02. UnitedHealth Group had a return on equity of 14.79% and a net margin of 2.69%.The business had revenue of $113.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $113.38 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $6.81 EPS. UnitedHealth Group’s quarterly revenue was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. UnitedHealth Group has set its FY 2026 guidance at 17.750- EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that UnitedHealth Group Incorporated will post 29.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

UnitedHealth Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th were given a dividend of $2.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 9th. This represents a $8.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.2%. UnitedHealth Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 67.02%.

UnitedHealth Group Company Profile

UnitedHealth Group Inc is a diversified health care company headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota, that operates two primary business platforms: UnitedHealthcare and Optum. Founded in 1977, the company provides a broad range of health benefits and health care services to individuals, employers, governmental entities and other organizations. Its operations span commercial employer-sponsored plans, individual and Medicare and Medicaid programs, and services for customers and health systems in the United States and selected international markets.

UnitedHealthcare is the company’s benefits business, administering health plans and networks, managing provider relationships, and offering coverage products for employers, individuals, and government-sponsored programs.