Berkeley Capital Partners LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH)

Berkeley Capital Partners LLC decreased its position in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) by 2.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,133 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock after selling 56 shares during the period. Berkeley Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in UnitedHealth Group were worth $1,079,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. M&T Bank Corp lifted its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 17.6% during the fourth quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,957 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $4,025,000 after acquiring an additional 1,193 shares in the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 41,308 shares in the last quarter. Parsifal Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group during the third quarter worth $21,165,000. Finally, Signal Advisors Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 13.0% during the fourth quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC now owns 9,115 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $4,611,000 after acquiring an additional 1,051 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.86% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Timothy Patrick Flynn acquired 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $511.57 per share, for a total transaction of $511,570.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 4,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,302,065. This represents a 28.57 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on UNH. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $595.00 to $625.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $625.00 to $610.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $605.00 to $600.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. HSBC raised shares of UnitedHealth Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $595.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their target price on UnitedHealth Group from $610.00 to $640.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Twenty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, UnitedHealth Group presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $629.32.

UnitedHealth Group Stock Performance

UnitedHealth Group stock opened at $503.05 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $510.48 and a 200-day moving average of $548.22. The firm has a market cap of $460.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.62. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated has a 1-year low of $436.38 and a 1-year high of $630.73.

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

UnitedHealth Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a $2.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $8.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.67%. UnitedHealth Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.19%.

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.