Operose Advisors LLC Increases Stock Position in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH)

Operose Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH - Free Report) by 39.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,573 shares of the healthcare conglomerate's stock after acquiring an additional 447 shares during the quarter. Operose Advisors LLC's holdings in UnitedHealth Group were worth $796,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of UNH. M&T Bank Corp raised its stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 13.4% during the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 220,590 shares of the healthcare conglomerate's stock valued at $128,975,000 after acquiring an additional 26,074 shares during the last quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in UnitedHealth Group by 17.6% during the 4th quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,957 shares of the healthcare conglomerate's stock worth $4,025,000 after buying an additional 1,193 shares during the period. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 13.0% in the fourth quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC now owns 9,115 shares of the healthcare conglomerate's stock valued at $4,611,000 after buying an additional 1,051 shares during the period. Waycross Partners LLC boosted its holdings in UnitedHealth Group by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Waycross Partners LLC now owns 27,794 shares of the healthcare conglomerate's stock valued at $14,060,000 after acquiring an additional 658 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Czech National Bank lifted its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 199,536 shares of the healthcare conglomerate's stock worth $100,937,000 after purchasing an additional 11,426 shares during the period. 87.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

UNH has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. KeyCorp reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $650.00 target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $655.00 to $642.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 17th. HSBC upgraded shares of UnitedHealth Group from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $595.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Erste Group Bank upgraded UnitedHealth Group to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday. Twenty-one research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, UnitedHealth Group has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $632.85.

UnitedHealth Group Stock Performance

UnitedHealth Group stock traded down $128.94 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $456.10. The company's stock had a trading volume of 29,048,929 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,373,443. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated has a 12-month low of $438.50 and a 12-month high of $630.73. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $512.95 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $540.65. 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 company has a market capitalization of $417.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.43, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.61.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $7.20 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $7.29 by ($0.09). The firm had revenue of $109.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.56 billion. UnitedHealth Group had a return on equity of 26.69% and a net margin of 3.60%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $6.91 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that UnitedHealth Group Incorporated will post 29.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

UnitedHealth Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a dividend of $2.10 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $8.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.84%. UnitedHealth Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 54.19%.

UnitedHealth Group 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.