UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) Upgraded to “Buy” at HSBC

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) was upgraded by research analysts at HSBC from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Friday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The firm presently has a $595.00 target price on the healthcare conglomerate’s stock. HSBC’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 11.77% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on UNH. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price target on UnitedHealth Group from $591.00 to $644.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com raised shares of UnitedHealth Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $610.00 to $640.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Hsbc Global Res cut UnitedHealth Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their price target on UnitedHealth Group from $625.00 to $610.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nineteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, UnitedHealth Group currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $626.79.

UnitedHealth Group Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:UNH traded up $7.83 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $532.35. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 911,558 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,373,389. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $556.20 and a 200 day moving average of $561.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $489.91 billion, a PE ratio of 34.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. UnitedHealth Group has a twelve month low of $436.38 and a twelve month high of $630.73.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $7.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.00 by $0.15. UnitedHealth Group had a return on equity of 26.37% and a net margin of 3.63%. The company had revenue of $100.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $6.56 earnings per share. UnitedHealth Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that UnitedHealth Group will post 27.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of UnitedHealth Group

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 45,540,102 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $26,626,387,000 after acquiring an additional 563,554 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted 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 acquiring an additional 318,039 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in UnitedHealth Group by 2.5% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,061,916 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $4,884,019,000 after acquiring an additional 193,800 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 5,290,025 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in UnitedHealth Group by 30.0% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,816,254 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $1,942,956,000 after purchasing an additional 880,183 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.86% of the company’s stock.

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.