Ledge Wealth Management Inc. Reduces Position in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH)

Ledge Wealth Management Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) by 18.1% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 3,955 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock after selling 877 shares during the quarter. Ledge Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in UnitedHealth Group were worth $1,901,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in UNH. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in UnitedHealth Group by 0.7% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 74,928,539 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $35,410,478,000 after acquiring an additional 509,633 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in UnitedHealth Group by 0.6% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 24,079,140 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $11,379,561,000 after buying an additional 140,312 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 17,101,395 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $8,063,262,000 after acquiring an additional 242,959 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in UnitedHealth Group by 13.8% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 15,635,038 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $8,289,386,000 after purchasing an additional 1,893,192 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in UnitedHealth Group by 100,076.4% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,823,820 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $6,268,753,000 after purchasing an additional 11,812,017 shares in the last quarter. 85.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on UNH shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $564.00 to $555.00 in a research report on Monday, July 17th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $591.00 target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research note on Thursday, September 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $527.00 to $532.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 17th. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $560.00 price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a report on Friday, August 11th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on UnitedHealth Group from $510.00 to $520.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 19th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $575.65.

UnitedHealth Group Stock Performance

Shares of UNH stock opened at $486.06 on Tuesday. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated has a 12-month low of $445.68 and a 12-month high of $558.10. The company has a market capitalization of $450.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The business’s 50 day moving average is $492.05 and its two-hundred day moving average is $486.73.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 14th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $6.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.92 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $92.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $90.97 billion. UnitedHealth Group had a net margin of 6.06% and a return on equity of 26.72%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $5.57 EPS. Analysts expect that UnitedHealth Group Incorporated will post 24.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

UnitedHealth Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 19th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 11th will be given a $1.88 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 8th. This represents a $7.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.55%. UnitedHealth Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.65%.

Insider Buying and Selling at UnitedHealth Group

In related news, CEO Andrew Witty sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $506.19, for a total transaction of $2,024,760.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 78,573 shares in the company, valued at $39,772,866.87. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.35% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About UnitedHealth Group

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated operates as a diversified health care company in the United States. It 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.