UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) Releases FY24 Earnings Guidance

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) updated its FY24 earnings guidance on Tuesday. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $27.50-28.00 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of $27.50. UnitedHealth Group also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 27.500-28.000 EPS.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on UNH. Stephens restated an overweight rating and set a $605.00 target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Erste Group Bank restated a hold rating on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $600.00 price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research note on Wednesday. TD Cowen dropped their price target on UnitedHealth Group from $607.00 to $546.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on UnitedHealth Group from $566.00 to $571.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $569.68.

UnitedHealth Group Stock Performance

Shares of UNH opened at $478.99 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. The company has a market capitalization of $441.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.28, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 0.54. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $489.51 and a 200 day moving average of $515.38. UnitedHealth Group has a 12 month low of $436.38 and a 12 month high of $554.70.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $6.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.63 by $0.28. UnitedHealth Group had a return on equity of 26.50% and a net margin of 4.05%. The company had revenue of $99.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.23 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $6.26 earnings per share. UnitedHealth Group’s revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that UnitedHealth Group will post 27.75 earnings per share for the current year.

UnitedHealth Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 19th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 11th were given a $1.88 dividend. This represents a $7.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 8th. UnitedHealth Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.97%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Thomas E. Roos sold 858 shares of UnitedHealth Group stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $525.79, for a total value of $451,127.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 32,289 shares in the company, valued at $16,977,233.31. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other UnitedHealth Group news, CAO Thomas E. Roos sold 858 shares of UnitedHealth Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $525.79, for a total transaction of $451,127.82. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 32,289 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,977,233.31. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Erin Mcsweeney sold 1,236 shares of UnitedHealth Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $483.48, for a total value of $597,581.28. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,527,306.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.35% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in UnitedHealth Group by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 83,860,514 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $44,150,045,000 after purchasing an additional 250,290 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its position in UnitedHealth Group by 13.8% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 15,635,038 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $8,289,386,000 after purchasing an additional 1,893,192 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in UnitedHealth Group by 100,076.4% during the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 11,749,819 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $5,647,433,000 after acquiring an additional 399,739 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of UnitedHealth Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $5,210,004,000. Institutional investors own 87.86% of the company’s stock.

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.