Truist Financial Reaffirms "Buy" Rating for UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH)

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating restated by investment analysts at Truist Financial in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $360.00 price target on the healthcare conglomerate's stock, down from their previous price target of $580.00. Truist Financial's price objective points to a potential upside of 20.07% from the stock's current price.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on the stock. Bank of America downgraded shares of UnitedHealth Group from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $560.00 to $350.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. TD Cowen cut shares of UnitedHealth Group from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $308.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday. Argus cut UnitedHealth Group from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on UnitedHealth Group from $510.00 to $356.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $677.00 to $351.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, UnitedHealth Group currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $461.19.

UnitedHealth Group Stock Up 2.7%

Shares of UNH stock traded up $7.93 on Monday, hitting $299.84. The stock had a trading volume of 17,328,316 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,931,325. UnitedHealth Group has a 12-month low of $248.88 and a 12-month high of $630.73. The stock has a market cap of $271.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.56. The business has a 50 day moving average of $470.82 and a 200 day moving average of $513.25. 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 (NYSE:UNH - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $7.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $7.29 by ($0.09). UnitedHealth Group had a net margin of 3.60% and a return on equity of 26.69%. The business had revenue of $109.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $111.56 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $6.91 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that UnitedHealth Group will post 29.54 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO John F. Rex acquired 17,175 shares of UnitedHealth Group stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $291.12 per share, for a total transaction of $4,999,986.00. Following the purchase, the chief financial officer now owns 203,796 shares in the company, valued at $59,329,091.52. This trade represents a 9.20% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Kristen Gil acquired 3,700 shares of UnitedHealth Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $271.17 per share, with a total value of $1,003,329.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 3,818 shares in the company, valued at $1,035,327.06. This represents a 3,135.59% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders bought 109,408 shares of company stock worth $31,607,768. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of UnitedHealth Group

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. NewSquare Capital LLC purchased a new stake in UnitedHealth Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new position in UnitedHealth Group in the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Hurley Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of UnitedHealth Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Bayforest Capital Ltd raised its stake in UnitedHealth Group by 685.7% during the 1st quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 55 shares of the healthcare conglomerate's stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. Finally, Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd bought a new position in UnitedHealth Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.

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