UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) to Issue $2.10 Quarterly Dividend

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, August 7th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th will be given a dividend of 2.10 per share by the healthcare conglomerate on Tuesday, September 24th. This represents a $8.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.47%.

UnitedHealth Group has increased its dividend payment by an average of 14.7% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 15 consecutive years. UnitedHealth Group has a dividend payout ratio of 27.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect UnitedHealth Group to earn $31.21 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $8.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 26.9%.

UnitedHealth Group Stock Performance

NYSE:UNH opened at $570.00 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $517.25 and a 200-day moving average price of $503.83. The company has a market cap of $524.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.74, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.88. UnitedHealth Group has a fifty-two week low of $436.38 and a fifty-two week high of $591.54.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $6.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.66 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $98.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $98.73 billion. UnitedHealth Group had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 3.66%. The company’s revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $6.14 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that UnitedHealth Group will post 27.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on UNH shares. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on UnitedHealth Group from $597.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on UnitedHealth Group from $545.00 to $562.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. StockNews.com downgraded UnitedHealth Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Truist Financial increased their target price on UnitedHealth Group from $600.00 to $640.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on UnitedHealth Group from $560.00 to $604.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $614.17.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Erin Mcsweeney sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $579.03, for a total value of $868,545.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 7,785 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,507,748.55. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Erin Mcsweeney sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $579.03, for a total value of $868,545.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 7,785 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,507,748.55. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Thomas E. Roos sold 2,851 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $569.88, for a total value of $1,624,727.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,501 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,812,029.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.