Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. Grows Stock Position in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH)

Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. grew its holdings in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) by 4.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,375 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the quarter. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc.’s holdings in UnitedHealth Group were worth $1,201,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Snider Financial Group lifted its position in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 16.6% in the fourth quarter. Snider Financial Group now owns 6,580 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,328,000 after acquiring an additional 938 shares in the last quarter. Triad Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in UnitedHealth Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,198,000. Carrera Capital Advisors grew its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 9.3% during the fourth quarter. Carrera Capital Advisors now owns 553 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $280,000 after buying an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in UnitedHealth Group by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 627,739 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $317,548,000 after acquiring an additional 22,788 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Keybank National Association OH raised its holdings in UnitedHealth Group by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 197,617 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $99,967,000 after acquiring an additional 1,193 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.86% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other UnitedHealth Group news, Director Timothy Patrick Flynn bought 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $511.57 per share, with a total value of $511,570.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 4,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,302,065. The trade was a 28.57 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on UNH shares. 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 note on Friday, January 17th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $694.00 to $660.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $595.00 to $625.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Hsbc Global Res upgraded UnitedHealth Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $700.00 price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research report on Friday, January 17th. One research 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $629.32.

UnitedHealth Group Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of UNH opened at $474.58 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $515.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $555.37. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated has a one year low of $436.38 and a one year high of $630.73. The company has a market capitalization of $436.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.62, a P/E/G 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 posted its quarterly earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $100.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $101.60 billion. UnitedHealth Group had a net margin of 3.60% and a return on equity of 26.69%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $5.83 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that UnitedHealth Group Incorporated will post 29.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

UnitedHealth Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $2.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $8.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.77%. 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.