Capital Investment Counsel LLC Purchases 327 Shares of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH)

Capital Investment Counsel LLC grew its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) by 2.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 14,478 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock after buying an additional 327 shares during the period. UnitedHealth Group accounts for 1.2% of Capital Investment Counsel LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest position. Capital Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in UnitedHealth Group were worth $7,324,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 1.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 45,540,102 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $26,626,387,000 after buying an additional 563,554 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,636,704 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $11,440,133,000 after buying an additional 318,039 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,061,916 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $4,884,019,000 after purchasing an additional 193,800 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 78,814.4% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 5,296,737 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $3,096,896,000 after purchasing an additional 5,290,025 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 3,197,167 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $1,869,320,000 after purchasing an additional 107,097 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.86% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

UNH has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $615.00 to $610.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com raised UnitedHealth Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Stephens increased their target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $605.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Bank of America cut their price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $675.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on UnitedHealth Group from $655.00 to $642.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $629.32.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Timothy Patrick Flynn purchased 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $511.57 per share, for a total transaction of $511,570.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 4,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,302,065. The trade was a 28.57 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

UnitedHealth Group Trading Down 0.2 %

UNH stock opened at $542.52 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $499.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.00, a PEG ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 0.62. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated has a 52-week low of $436.38 and a 52-week high of $630.73. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $540.11 and its 200-day simple moving average is $565.06.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 16th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $6.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business 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 company’s revenue was up 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that UnitedHealth Group Incorporated will post 29.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

UnitedHealth Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were paid a $2.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. This represents a $8.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.55%. UnitedHealth Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.19%.

UnitedHealth Group 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.