UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) Lifted to Strong-Buy at KeyCorp

KeyCorp upgraded shares of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) to a strong-buy rating in a report released on Thursday, Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Truist Financial upped their target price on UnitedHealth Group from $600.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. UBS Group upped their target price on UnitedHealth Group from $640.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Argus upped their target price on UnitedHealth Group from $570.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. TD Cowen upped their price target on UnitedHealth Group from $546.00 to $601.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, StockNews.com cut UnitedHealth Group from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Buy and an average price target of $617.37.

UnitedHealth Group Stock Up 0.1 %

NYSE:UNH opened at $598.05 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $552.25 billion, a PE ratio of 39.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.58. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $583.64 and a 200-day moving average of $531.35. UnitedHealth Group has a 52 week low of $436.38 and a 52 week high of $607.94. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $6.80 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.66 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $98.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $98.73 billion. UnitedHealth Group had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 3.66%. The business’s revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $6.14 earnings per share. Analysts predict that UnitedHealth Group will post 27.69 EPS for the current year.

UnitedHealth Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 24th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a dividend of $2.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $8.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.40%. UnitedHealth Group’s payout ratio is 55.70%.

Insider Buying and Selling at UnitedHealth Group

In other UnitedHealth Group news, EVP Erin Mcsweeney sold 1,500 shares of UnitedHealth Group stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $579.03, for a total value of $868,545.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 7,785 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,507,748.55. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CAO Thomas E. Roos sold 2,851 shares of UnitedHealth Group stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $569.88, for a total transaction of $1,624,727.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,501 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,812,029.88. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Erin Mcsweeney sold 1,500 shares of UnitedHealth Group stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $579.03, for a total transaction of $868,545.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 7,785 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,507,748.55. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of UnitedHealth Group

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in UnitedHealth Group by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 84,405,255 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $41,755,280,000 after purchasing an additional 544,740 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 26,062,928 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $12,893,331,000 after buying an additional 94,641 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,039,601 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $4,094,247,000 after buying an additional 35,533 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 30.0% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,816,254 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,942,956,000 after buying an additional 880,183 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,772,487 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,920,039,000 after buying an additional 21,149 shares in the last quarter. 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.