Houlihan Financial Resource Group Ltd. Buys Shares of 524 UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH)

Houlihan Financial Resource Group Ltd. bought a new stake in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 524 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $259,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Stokes Family Office LLC grew its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 27.2% during the 1st quarter. Stokes Family Office LLC now owns 3,421 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $1,692,000 after purchasing an additional 731 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group during the 1st quarter worth approximately $12,760,000. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. grew its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 12.5% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 110,338 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $54,584,000 after purchasing an additional 12,260 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC grew its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 3.4% during the 1st quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 33,595 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $16,619,000 after purchasing an additional 1,120 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Duality Advisers LP acquired a new stake in UnitedHealth Group in the 1st quarter valued at $4,602,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.86% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

UNH has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays boosted their price target on UnitedHealth Group from $534.00 to $560.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. HSBC upgraded UnitedHealth Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $580.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on UnitedHealth Group from $600.00 to $525.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 8th. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on UnitedHealth Group from $607.00 to $546.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $591.00 price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a report on Tuesday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, UnitedHealth Group currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $581.44.

UnitedHealth Group Stock Performance

Shares of UNH traded up $7.17 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $511.53. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,532,475 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,236,860. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $499.58 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $499.99. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated has a 1-year low of $436.38 and a 1-year high of $554.70. The stock has a market cap of $470.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.27, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $6.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.63 by $0.28. The firm had revenue of $99.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.23 billion. UnitedHealth Group had a net margin of 4.05% and a return on equity of 26.50%. The business’s revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $6.26 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that UnitedHealth Group Incorporated will post 27.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

UnitedHealth Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 25th. Investors of record on Monday, June 17th were given a dividend of $2.10 per share. This represents a $8.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. This is a positive change from UnitedHealth Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.88. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 17th. UnitedHealth Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.34%.

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.