UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (UNH) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $2.10 on March 18th

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, February 24th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid 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 1.79%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th.

UnitedHealth Group has increased its dividend by an average of 13.5% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 15 years. UnitedHealth Group has a payout ratio of 25.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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 Up 1.9 %

UNH stock opened at $470.49 on Wednesday. UnitedHealth Group has a fifty-two week low of $436.38 and a fifty-two week high of $630.73. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $518.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $559.08. The firm has a market cap of $432.99 billion, a PE ratio of 30.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.83.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

UNH has been the subject of several research reports. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $625.00 to $610.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on UnitedHealth Group from $610.00 to $640.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Stephens lifted their price objective 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. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and set a $650.00 target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on UnitedHealth Group from $595.00 to $625.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $629.32.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Timothy Patrick Flynn acquired 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were bought at an average price of $511.57 per share, for a total transaction of $511,570.00. Following the acquisition, 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 acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

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.