UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) Price Target Cut to $555.00 by Analysts at Royal Bank of Canada

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) had its target price reduced by equities researchers at Royal Bank of Canada from $596.00 to $555.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the healthcare conglomerate’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 15.56% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also commented on UNH. Barclays initiated coverage on UnitedHealth Group in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $551.00 target price for the company. HSBC upgraded UnitedHealth Group from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $460.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $600.00 price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research report on Wednesday. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and set a $605.00 target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $610.00 target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $571.20.

UnitedHealth Group Stock Performance

UNH traded up $11.39 on Wednesday, hitting $480.28. The company had a trading volume of 6,631,769 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,434,561. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $490.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $515.63. UnitedHealth Group has a 1-year low of $436.38 and a 1-year high of $554.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market cap of $442.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.54.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $6.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.54 by $0.37. UnitedHealth Group had a return on equity of 26.39% and a net margin of 6.02%. The firm had revenue of $99.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.23 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $6.26 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that UnitedHealth Group will post 27.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Erin Mcsweeney sold 1,236 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $483.48, for a total transaction of $597,581.28. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,527,306.72. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CAO Thomas E. Roos sold 858 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $525.79, for a total transaction of $451,127.82. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 32,289 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,977,233.31. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Erin Mcsweeney sold 1,236 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $483.48, for a total value of $597,581.28. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 9,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,527,306.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.35% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of UnitedHealth Group

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 83,860,515 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $44,150,045,000 after buying an additional 250,291 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 2.1% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 25,220,234 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $12,715,790,000 after purchasing an additional 527,526 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 13.8% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 15,635,038 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $8,289,386,000 after purchasing an additional 1,893,192 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 15,122,203 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $7,961,369,000 after purchasing an additional 324,733 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 11,860,985 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $6,244,158,000 after purchasing an additional 542,424 shares during the last quarter. 87.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.