Cadent Capital Advisors LLC Invests $539,000 in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH)

Cadent Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 922 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $539,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in UnitedHealth Group by 0.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 84,405,255 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $41,755,280,000 after purchasing an additional 544,740 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in UnitedHealth Group by 0.4% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 26,062,928 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $12,893,331,000 after buying an additional 94,641 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in UnitedHealth Group by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,039,601 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $4,094,247,000 after buying an additional 35,533 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 30.0% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,816,254 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,942,956,000 after purchasing an additional 880,183 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,772,487 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,920,039,000 after purchasing an additional 21,149 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.86% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on UNH. UBS Group dropped their price target on UnitedHealth Group from $680.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $675.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. KeyCorp began coverage on UnitedHealth Group in a research note on Friday, October 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $675.00 target price on the stock. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $597.00 to $640.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on UnitedHealth Group from $560.00 to $604.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, UnitedHealth Group presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $615.58.

UnitedHealth Group Stock Performance

NYSE UNH opened at $569.61 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $584.42 and a 200-day moving average price of $534.15. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated has a twelve month low of $436.38 and a twelve month high of $608.63. The firm has a market cap of $524.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 0.58.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $7.15 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $7.00 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $100.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.14 billion. UnitedHealth Group had a net margin of 3.66% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $6.56 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that UnitedHealth Group Incorporated will post 27.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

UnitedHealth Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 24th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a dividend of $2.10 per share. This represents a $8.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. UnitedHealth Group’s payout ratio is presently 51.34%.

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.