ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Boosts Stake in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated $UNH

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. lifted its stake in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) by 1.8% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,270 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in UnitedHealth Group were worth $1,020,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in UNH. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group in the 1st quarter worth approximately $3,846,764,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position 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 valued at $47,519,620,000 after acquiring an additional 5,583,343 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in UnitedHealth Group by 10.6% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 25,847,940 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $13,537,859,000 after acquiring an additional 2,486,839 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its position in UnitedHealth Group by 137.8% in the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,641,177 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $859,518,000 after acquiring an additional 950,928 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in UnitedHealth Group by 13.6% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,070,385 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,702,736,000 after acquiring an additional 847,054 shares in the last quarter. 87.86% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

UnitedHealth Group Trading Up 1.8%

NYSE:UNH opened at $360.17 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $326.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.47. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated has a one year low of $234.60 and a one year high of $630.73. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $307.84 and a 200-day moving average price of $355.58.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $4.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.45 by ($0.37). UnitedHealth Group had a return on equity of 23.32% and a net margin of 5.04%.The business had revenue of $111.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $111.75 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $6.80 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. UnitedHealth Group has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.000- EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that UnitedHealth Group Incorporated will post 29.54 EPS for the current year.

UnitedHealth Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 15th were paid a $2.21 dividend. This represents a $8.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 15th. UnitedHealth Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.30%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on UNH shares. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on UnitedHealth Group from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on UnitedHealth Group from $337.00 to $379.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price target on UnitedHealth Group from $355.00 to $286.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Barclays increased their price target on UnitedHealth Group from $337.00 to $352.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on UnitedHealth Group from $290.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $358.95.

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.