UnitedHealth Group’s (UNH) “Overweight” Rating Reiterated at Cantor Fitzgerald

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reiterated by investment analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald in a research report issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $591.00 price target on the healthcare conglomerate’s stock. Cantor Fitzgerald’s target price points to a potential downside of 2.21% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the company. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded UnitedHealth Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $481.00 to $647.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $546.00 to $559.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. StockNews.com lowered UnitedHealth Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on UnitedHealth Group from $555.00 to $615.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on UnitedHealth Group from $525.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $614.17.

UnitedHealth Group Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:UNH traded up $10.23 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $604.33. The company had a trading volume of 1,023,184 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,049,639. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $560.97 and its 200 day moving average price is $515.54. UnitedHealth Group has a fifty-two week low of $436.38 and a fifty-two week high of $607.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $558.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $6.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.66 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $98.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 for the quarter was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $6.14 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that UnitedHealth Group will post 27.69 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Institutional Trading of UnitedHealth Group

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in UNH. Heritage Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in UnitedHealth Group in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,165,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of UnitedHealth Group in the second quarter valued at $61,519,000. Brown Financial Advisors acquired a new position in shares of UnitedHealth Group in the second quarter valued at about $2,898,000. Farmers National Bank grew its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 15.5% during the 2nd quarter. Farmers National Bank now owns 6,351 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $3,234,000 after purchasing an additional 851 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RiverFront Investment Group LLC grew its position in UnitedHealth Group by 9.9% in the second quarter. RiverFront Investment Group LLC now owns 25,048 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $12,756,000 after acquiring an additional 2,254 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.86% of the company’s stock.

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.