Cannell & Spears LLC Acquires 519 Shares of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH)

Cannell & Spears LLC grew its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) by 6.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 8,249 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 519 shares during the period. Cannell & Spears LLC’s holdings in UnitedHealth Group were worth $4,173,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of UNH. Summit Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. Summit Financial LLC now owns 24,729 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $12,509,000 after acquiring an additional 1,201 shares in the last quarter. AIA Group Ltd grew its holdings in UnitedHealth Group by 20.7% during the fourth quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 23,983 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $12,132,000 after purchasing an additional 4,106 shares during the last quarter. FSB Premier Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. FSB Premier Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,829 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $925,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Partners in Financial Planning acquired a new position in UnitedHealth Group in the 4th quarter valued at $213,000. Finally, O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC lifted its position in UnitedHealth Group by 6.1% during the 4th quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 119,351 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $60,375,000 after acquiring an additional 6,813 shares during the last quarter. 87.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on UnitedHealth Group from $610.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $700.00 price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Stephens upped their target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $605.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $625.00 to $610.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price target on UnitedHealth Group from $605.00 to $600.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Twenty research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $629.32.

UnitedHealth Group Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of UnitedHealth Group stock opened at $524.48 on Tuesday. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated has a 52-week low of $436.38 and a 52-week high of $630.73. 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 firm has a 50-day moving average of $509.10 and a 200-day moving average of $543.47. The stock has a market cap of $479.75 billion, a PE ratio of 33.84, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.62.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 16th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $6.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.74 by $0.07. UnitedHealth Group had a return on equity of 26.69% and a net margin of 3.60%. The firm had revenue of $100.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $101.60 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $5.83 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that UnitedHealth Group Incorporated will post 29.54 EPS for the current year.

UnitedHealth Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a $2.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $8.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.60%. UnitedHealth Group’s payout ratio is currently 54.19%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Timothy Patrick Flynn acquired 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $511.57 per share, for a total transaction of $511,570.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 4,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,302,065. This trade represents a 28.57 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.