Prudent Man Advisors LLC Decreases Stock Position in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH)

Prudent Man Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) by 9.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,684 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock after selling 279 shares during the quarter. Prudent Man Advisors LLC’s holdings in UnitedHealth Group were worth $1,358,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in UNH. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 76,830.4% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,888,641 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $955,388,000 after buying an additional 1,886,186 shares during the last quarter. Accredited Investors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 9,235.4% during the 3rd quarter. Accredited Investors Inc. now owns 784,924 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $458,929,000 after buying an additional 776,516 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lifted its stake in UnitedHealth Group by 129.7% during the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 1,029,540 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $601,951,000 after purchasing an additional 581,324 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in UnitedHealth Group by 1.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 45,540,102 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $26,626,387,000 after purchasing an additional 563,554 shares during the last quarter. Finally, B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new position in UnitedHealth Group during the third quarter worth $276,785,000. 87.86% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

UNH has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on UnitedHealth Group from $625.00 to $610.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. HSBC raised shares of UnitedHealth Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $595.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target 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. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $605.00 to $600.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $650.00 price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a report on Friday, January 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, UnitedHealth Group currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $629.32.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other UnitedHealth Group news, Director Timothy Patrick Flynn purchased 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was bought at an average price of $511.57 per share, with a total value of $511,570.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 4,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,302,065. This represents a 28.57 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

UnitedHealth Group Trading Up 1.4 %

NYSE:UNH opened at $474.95 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.91. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $436.38 and a fifty-two week high of $630.73. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $516.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $557.16. The stock has a market cap of $437.09 billion, a PE ratio of 30.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.61.

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

UnitedHealth Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a $2.10 dividend. This represents a $8.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. UnitedHealth Group’s payout ratio is 54.19%.

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.