Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC Has $338,000 Holdings in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH)

Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC lessened its stake in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) by 13.9% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 684 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock after selling 110 shares during the quarter. Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC’s holdings in UnitedHealth Group were worth $338,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in UNH. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 0.3% in 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 in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 2.1% in 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 in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 2.2% in 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 in the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 11,860,985 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $6,244,158,000 after purchasing an additional 542,424 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group in the fourth quarter worth $5,802,231,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.86% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on UNH shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $546.00 to $559.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $596.00 to $555.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $600.00 to $525.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 8th. HSBC raised shares of UnitedHealth Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $580.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of UnitedHealth Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $579.74.

UnitedHealth Group Trading Up 4.7 %

UNH stock opened at $509.26 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.85. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $498.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $501.96. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated has a 52 week low of $436.38 and a 52 week high of $554.70. The company has a market capitalization of $468.72 billion, a PE ratio of 31.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.58.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $6.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 4.05% and a return on equity of 26.50%. UnitedHealth Group’s revenue was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $6.26 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that UnitedHealth Group Incorporated will post 27.55 earnings per share for the current year.

UnitedHealth Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 17th were paid a dividend of $2.10 per share. This represents a $8.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.65%. This is an increase from UnitedHealth Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.88. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 17th. UnitedHealth Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.