Wedbush Securities Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated $UNH

Wedbush Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) by 52.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 27,864 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,570 shares during the quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc.’s holdings in UnitedHealth Group were worth $8,693,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in UnitedHealth Group by 0.9% in the first quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,947 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,544,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Brogan Financial Inc. grew its holdings in UnitedHealth Group by 3.4% during the 1st quarter. Brogan Financial Inc. now owns 819 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $429,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. West Wealth Group LLC lifted its holdings in UnitedHealth Group by 3.2% in the 1st quarter. West Wealth Group LLC now owns 882 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $462,000 after buying an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Hemington Wealth Management boosted its position in UnitedHealth Group by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Hemington Wealth Management now owns 1,154 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $604,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tlwm increased its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 1.0% during the first quarter. Tlwm now owns 2,736 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $1,433,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.86% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on UNH. UBS Group raised their price objective on UnitedHealth Group from $378.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $440.00 price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of UnitedHealth Group from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Friday, October 24th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $335.00 to $338.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reiterated an “underperform” rating and issued a $198.00 price target (down from $312.00) on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Eighteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, UnitedHealth Group presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $397.12.

UnitedHealth Group Price Performance

UNH opened at $324.29 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $293.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.47. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $345.84 and its 200 day moving average price is $323.37. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $234.60 and a fifty-two week high of $630.73. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $2.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.87 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $113.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $113.19 billion. UnitedHealth Group had a return on equity of 19.23% and a net margin of 4.04%.The business’s revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $7.15 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that UnitedHealth Group Incorporated will post 29.54 earnings per share for the current year.

UnitedHealth Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be paid a $2.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 8th. This represents a $8.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. UnitedHealth Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.14%.

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.