Piper Sandler Cuts UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) Price Target to $600.00

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) had its price objective trimmed by Piper Sandler from $605.00 to $600.00 in a research note released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the healthcare conglomerate’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on UNH. Hsbc Global Res cut UnitedHealth Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. StockNews.com upgraded UnitedHealth Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. KeyCorp began coverage on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research report on Friday, October 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $675.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $615.00 to $610.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price objective on UnitedHealth Group from $675.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $628.37.

UnitedHealth Group Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE:UNH opened at $513.00 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91. UnitedHealth Group has a 1-year low of $436.38 and a 1-year high of $630.73. The company’s fifty day moving average is $559.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is $560.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $472.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.62.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $7.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $7.00 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $100.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.14 billion. UnitedHealth Group had a return on equity of 26.37% and a net margin of 3.63%. The business’s revenue was up 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $6.56 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that UnitedHealth Group will post 27.61 EPS for the current year.

UnitedHealth Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a dividend of $2.10 per share. This represents a $8.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. UnitedHealth Group’s payout ratio is currently 54.72%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in UNH. M&T Bank Corp lifted 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 purchasing an additional 26,074 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc. raised 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 acquiring an additional 41,308 shares in the last quarter. Parsifal Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group in the 3rd quarter valued at $21,165,000. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group during the 3rd quarter worth about $558,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in UnitedHealth Group by 2.5% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,061,916 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $4,884,019,000 after buying an additional 193,800 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.86% of the company’s stock.

UnitedHealth Group Company 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.