UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $2.10

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, February 24th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be given 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 1.80%.

UnitedHealth Group has increased its dividend payment 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 dividend payout ratio of 25.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research 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 Stock Performance

UNH opened at $465.58 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $519.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $560.44. UnitedHealth Group has a 1 year low of $436.38 and a 1 year high of $630.73. The stock has a market cap of $428.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.61.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 16th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $6.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.74 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $100.81 billion during 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 revenue for the quarter was up 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $5.83 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that UnitedHealth Group will post 29.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on UNH. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $700.00 target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of UnitedHealth Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $650.00 target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $610.00 to $640.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $655.00 to $642.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, UnitedHealth Group presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $629.32.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other UnitedHealth Group news, Director Timothy Patrick Flynn bought 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $511.57 per share, for a total transaction of $511,570.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 4,500 shares in the company, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.