Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. Sells 548 Shares of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated $UNH

Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. reduced its holdings in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 8,805 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock after selling 548 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.’s holdings in UnitedHealth Group were worth $2,747,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 6.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 90,729,585 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $47,519,620,000 after acquiring an additional 5,583,343 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 10.6% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 25,847,940 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $13,537,859,000 after buying an additional 2,486,839 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 2.5% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,128,174 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $4,257,131,000 after buying an additional 196,696 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of UnitedHealth Group during the first quarter worth about $3,846,764,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 13.6% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,070,385 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $3,702,736,000 after buying an additional 847,054 shares in the last quarter. 87.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on UNH. KeyCorp increased their price objective on UnitedHealth Group from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Oppenheimer reduced their price target on UnitedHealth Group from $400.00 to $325.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $440.00 price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. TD Cowen increased their price target on UnitedHealth Group from $335.00 to $338.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on UnitedHealth Group from $317.00 to $409.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 17th. Eighteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $397.12.

UnitedHealth Group Stock Performance

UNH opened at $341.46 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $309.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.82, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated has a 12-month low of $234.60 and a 12-month high of $630.73. The business has a 50 day moving average of $343.51 and a 200-day moving average of $327.62.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $2.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.87 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $113.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $113.19 billion. UnitedHealth Group had a return on equity of 19.23% and a net margin of 4.04%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $7.15 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that UnitedHealth Group Incorporated will post 29.54 earnings per share for the current year.

UnitedHealth Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 15th were paid a dividend of $2.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 15th. This represents a $8.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. UnitedHealth Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.14%.

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.