L & S Advisors Inc Has $3.76 Million Holdings in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH)

L & S Advisors Inc raised its holdings in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) by 5.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,425 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 333 shares during the period. L & S Advisors Inc’s holdings in UnitedHealth Group were worth $3,757,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Smithfield Trust Co raised its holdings in UnitedHealth Group by 1.7% during the third quarter. Smithfield Trust Co now owns 6,500 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $3,805,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in UnitedHealth Group by 4.7% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 68,980 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $40,331,000 after buying an additional 3,120 shares in the last quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC grew its position in UnitedHealth Group by 49.4% during the third quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC now owns 1,597 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $934,000 after buying an additional 528 shares in the last quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC grew its position in UnitedHealth Group by 8.0% during the third quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 1,443 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $844,000 after buying an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LPL Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 7.8% in the 3rd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 895,944 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $523,840,000 after purchasing an additional 64,447 shares in the last quarter. 87.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on UNH shares. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their target price on UnitedHealth Group from $591.00 to $644.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on UnitedHealth Group from $615.00 to $595.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com cut UnitedHealth Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. UBS Group lowered their target price on UnitedHealth Group from $680.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their target price on UnitedHealth Group from $601.00 to $609.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, UnitedHealth Group has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $615.53.

UnitedHealth Group Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:UNH opened at $600.50 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $552.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $582.52 and a 200-day moving average price of $551.60. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated has a 12 month low of $436.38 and a 12 month high of $630.73.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $7.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $7.00 by $0.15. UnitedHealth Group had a net margin of 3.63% and a return on equity of 26.37%. The firm had revenue of $100.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.14 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $6.56 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that UnitedHealth Group Incorporated will post 27.6 EPS for the current year.

UnitedHealth Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid a $2.10 dividend. This represents a $8.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. UnitedHealth Group’s payout ratio is currently 54.72%.

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.