UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) Rating Increased to Buy at HSBC

HSBC upgraded shares of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report published on Friday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has $595.00 price target on the healthcare conglomerate’s stock.

UNH has been the subject of several other reports. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $625.00 to $610.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $680.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com raised shares of UnitedHealth Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $595.00 to $625.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $615.00 to $595.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nineteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $626.79.

UnitedHealth Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE UNH opened at $520.11 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $478.65 billion, a PE ratio of 33.88, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $555.25 and a 200 day moving average price of $562.50. UnitedHealth Group has a 1-year low of $436.38 and a 1-year high of $630.73. 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 (NYSE:UNH) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $7.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $7.00 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $100.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.14 billion. UnitedHealth Group had a return on equity of 26.37% and a net margin of 3.63%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $6.56 EPS. Research analysts predict that UnitedHealth Group will post 27.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

UnitedHealth Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a $2.10 dividend. This represents a $8.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. UnitedHealth Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.72%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. M&T Bank Corp grew its position in UnitedHealth Group by 13.4% in the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 220,590 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $128,975,000 after acquiring an additional 26,074 shares during the last quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC grew its position in UnitedHealth Group by 17.6% in the fourth quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,957 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $4,025,000 after acquiring an additional 1,193 shares during the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its position in UnitedHealth Group by 1,275.3% in the third quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 44,547 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $26,060,000 after acquiring an additional 41,308 shares during the last quarter. Parsifal Capital Management LP bought a new position in UnitedHealth Group in the third quarter valued at about $21,165,000. Finally, Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new position in UnitedHealth Group in the third quarter valued at about $558,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.