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

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, February 24th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a dividend of 2.10 per share by the healthcare conglomerate on Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $8.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.82%.

UnitedHealth Group has raised its dividend payment by an average of 13.5% per year 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 25.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect UnitedHealth Group to earn $33.22 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 25.3%.

UnitedHealth Group Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of UnitedHealth Group stock opened at $461.09 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $424.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.75, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.61. UnitedHealth Group has a 12-month low of $436.38 and a 12-month high of $630.73. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $518.52 and its 200-day moving average price is $559.70. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on UNH. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $610.00 to $640.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of UnitedHealth Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on UnitedHealth Group from $595.00 to $625.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Stephens increased their price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $605.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of UnitedHealth Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $629.32.

Insider Transactions at UnitedHealth Group

In other UnitedHealth Group news, Director Timothy Patrick Flynn bought 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $511.57 per share, with a total value of $511,570.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 4,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,302,065. This trade represents a 28.57 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.33% 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.