Wiley BROS. Aintree Capital LLC Grows Stake in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH)

Wiley BROS. Aintree Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) by 15.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,153 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the quarter. Wiley BROS. Aintree Capital LLC’s holdings in UnitedHealth Group were worth $554,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 100,076.4% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,823,820 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,268,753,000 after purchasing an additional 11,812,017 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in UnitedHealth Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $5,210,004,000. Gateway Advisory LLC grew its stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 48,406.9% in the first quarter. Gateway Advisory LLC now owns 4,762,407 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $4,762,000 after acquiring an additional 4,752,589 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in UnitedHealth Group by 264.2% during the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,511,174 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $732,934,000 after purchasing an additional 3,997,959 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in UnitedHealth Group by 1,682.4% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 2,691,542 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $1,372,606,000 after purchasing an additional 2,540,538 shares during the period. 85.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

UNH has been the topic of a number of research reports. SVB Securities dropped their price target on UnitedHealth Group from $625.00 to $560.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 14th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $616.00 to $561.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 13th. Piper Sandler started coverage on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a report on Thursday, May 25th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $580.00 price objective on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of UnitedHealth Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $595.00 to $603.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 18th. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on UnitedHealth Group in a research note on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $575.65.

UnitedHealth Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:UNH opened at $483.60 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market cap of $447.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 0.66. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $491.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $486.57. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $445.68 and a fifty-two week high of $558.10.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 14th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $6.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.92 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $92.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $90.97 billion. UnitedHealth Group had a return on equity of 26.72% and a net margin of 6.06%. The firm’s revenue was up 15.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $5.57 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that UnitedHealth Group Incorporated will post 24.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

UnitedHealth Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 19th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 11th will be issued a $1.88 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 8th. This represents a $7.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.56%. UnitedHealth Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.65%.

Insider Activity at UnitedHealth Group

In other UnitedHealth Group news, CEO Andrew Witty sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $506.19, for a total transaction of $2,024,760.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 78,573 shares in the company, valued at $39,772,866.87. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.35% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About UnitedHealth Group

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated operates as a diversified health care company in the United States. It 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.