UnitedHealth Group’s (UNH) “Buy” Rating Reaffirmed at Truist Financial

Truist Financial reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. Truist Financial currently has a $625.00 price target on the healthcare conglomerate’s stock, down from their previous price target of $640.00.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on UNH. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on UnitedHealth Group from $591.00 to $644.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. StockNews.com lowered UnitedHealth Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. UBS Group lifted their target price on UnitedHealth Group from $640.00 to $680.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on UnitedHealth Group from $546.00 to $601.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, KeyCorp assumed coverage on UnitedHealth Group in a report on Friday, October 11th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $675.00 target price for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, nineteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $615.16.

UnitedHealth Group Price Performance

UNH stock opened at $571.30 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $584.21 and a two-hundred day moving average of $532.84. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The stock has a market cap of $527.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 0.58. UnitedHealth Group has a 52-week low of $436.38 and a 52-week high of $608.63.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $7.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.00 by $0.15. UnitedHealth Group had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 3.66%. The business had revenue of $100.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $6.56 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that UnitedHealth Group will post 27.68 earnings per share for the current year.

UnitedHealth Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a $2.10 dividend. This represents a $8.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.47%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. UnitedHealth Group’s payout ratio is currently 55.70%.

Institutional Trading of UnitedHealth Group

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in UNH. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,117,462,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in UnitedHealth Group by 107.8% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 2,306,729 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,141,113,000 after acquiring an additional 1,196,758 shares during the period. Lone Pine Capital LLC acquired a new position in UnitedHealth Group in the 2nd quarter valued at about $480,903,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in 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 acquiring an additional 880,183 shares during the period. Finally, Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its position in UnitedHealth Group by 1,125.4% in the 2nd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 894,006 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $455,281,000 after acquiring an additional 821,050 shares during the period. 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.