Dearborn Partners LLC Acquires 42 Shares of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH)

Dearborn Partners LLC grew its stake in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) by 8.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 545 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the quarter. Dearborn Partners LLC’s holdings in UnitedHealth Group were worth $276,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of UNH. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 1.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 45,540,102 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $26,626,387,000 after purchasing an additional 563,554 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in UnitedHealth Group by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,636,704 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $11,440,133,000 after buying an additional 318,039 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 2.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,061,916 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $4,884,019,000 after acquiring an additional 193,800 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in UnitedHealth Group by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 7,931,478 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $4,012,218,000 after purchasing an additional 36,394 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,223,331 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $3,148,134,000 after purchasing an additional 182,361 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.86% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on UNH shares. Stephens boosted their price target on UnitedHealth Group from $605.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. StockNews.com raised UnitedHealth Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of UnitedHealth Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. HSBC upgraded shares of UnitedHealth Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $595.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $605.00 to $600.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $629.32.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other UnitedHealth Group news, Director Timothy Patrick Flynn bought 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $511.57 per share, with a total value of $511,570.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 4,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,302,065. This trade represents a 28.57 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

UnitedHealth Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:UNH opened at $486.54 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $445.04 billion, a PE ratio of 31.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.62. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated has a 52 week low of $436.38 and a 52 week high of $630.73. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $512.82 and its 200-day moving average is $552.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.83.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $6.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.74 by $0.07. UnitedHealth Group had a return on equity of 26.69% and a net margin of 3.60%. The company had revenue of $100.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $101.60 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $5.83 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that UnitedHealth Group Incorporated will post 29.54 earnings per share for the current year.

UnitedHealth Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $2.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $8.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.73%. UnitedHealth Group’s payout ratio is 54.19%.

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.