Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Purchases 4,523 Shares of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) by 2.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 213,016 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,523 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in UnitedHealth Group were worth $107,757,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in UNH. M&T Bank Corp increased its stake in UnitedHealth Group by 13.4% during the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 220,590 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $128,975,000 after acquiring an additional 26,074 shares during the last quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in UnitedHealth Group by 17.6% during the 4th quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,957 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $4,025,000 after buying an additional 1,193 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its stake in UnitedHealth Group by 1,275.3% during the third quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 44,547 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $26,060,000 after buying an additional 41,308 shares during the period. Parsifal Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group in the third quarter valued at $21,165,000. Finally, Signal Advisors Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 13.0% during the 4th quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC now owns 9,115 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $4,611,000 after purchasing an additional 1,051 shares during the period. 87.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on UNH. Stephens raised their price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $605.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Barclays dropped their price objective on UnitedHealth Group from $655.00 to $642.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 17th. HSBC raised 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 note on Friday, January 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $595.00 to $625.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $610.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. 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, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $629.32.

UnitedHealth Group Stock Performance

Shares of UNH opened at $493.35 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $513.78 and a 200-day moving average price of $553.39. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated has a 12 month low of $436.38 and a 12 month high of $630.73. The firm has a market cap of $451.28 billion, a PE ratio of 31.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74.

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

UnitedHealth Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a dividend of $2.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $8.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. UnitedHealth Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.19%.

Insider Activity

In other UnitedHealth Group news, Director Timothy Patrick Flynn acquired 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $511.57 per share, for a total transaction 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 $2,302,065. The trade was a 28.57 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.33% 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.