Advisor Resource Council Has $834,000 Stake in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH)

Advisor Resource Council decreased its holdings in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) by 65.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,584 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock after selling 2,975 shares during the quarter. Advisor Resource Council’s holdings in UnitedHealth Group were worth $834,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 83,860,515 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $44,150,045,000 after purchasing an additional 250,291 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 2.1% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 25,220,234 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $12,715,790,000 after purchasing an additional 527,526 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 15,122,203 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $7,961,369,000 after purchasing an additional 324,733 shares during the period. Capital International Investors grew its stake in UnitedHealth Group by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 11,860,985 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,244,158,000 after acquiring an additional 542,424 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in UnitedHealth Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $5,802,231,000. Institutional investors own 87.86% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on UnitedHealth Group from $566.00 to $571.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Robert W. Baird started coverage on UnitedHealth Group in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $597.00 target price for the company. Baird R W raised UnitedHealth Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on UnitedHealth Group from $545.00 to $562.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, StockNews.com cut UnitedHealth Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $579.74.

UnitedHealth Group Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE UNH traded down $8.35 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $489.89. 2,239,210 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,580,982. The firm has a market capitalization of $450.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.94, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.85. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated has a 52 week low of $436.38 and a 52 week high of $554.70. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $498.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $501.12.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $6.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.63 by $0.28. The business had revenue of $99.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.23 billion. UnitedHealth Group had a return on equity of 26.50% and a net margin of 4.05%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $6.26 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that UnitedHealth Group Incorporated will post 27.55 EPS for the current year.

UnitedHealth Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 25th. Investors of record on Monday, June 17th were given a dividend of $2.10 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 17th. This represents a $8.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.71%. This is an increase from UnitedHealth Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.88. UnitedHealth Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.34%.

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.