Bank of Hawaii Decreases Position in UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH)

Bank of Hawaii reduced its holdings in shares of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) by 75.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,065 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock after selling 3,198 shares during the period. Bank of Hawaii’s holdings in UnitedHealth Group were worth $539,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in UnitedHealth Group by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,956,219 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $10,068,869,000 after purchasing an additional 319,515 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in UnitedHealth Group during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $6,375,744,000. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in UnitedHealth Group by 10.7% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,923,770 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $4,514,178,000 after acquiring an additional 861,854 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of UnitedHealth Group by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 7,931,478 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock worth $4,012,218,000 after purchasing an additional 36,394 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in UnitedHealth Group by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,223,331 shares of the healthcare conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,148,134,000 after purchasing an additional 182,361 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.86% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on UNH. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on UnitedHealth Group from $694.00 to $660.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $700.00 price target on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research report on Friday, January 17th. KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $650.00 target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of UnitedHealth Group from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Truist Financial reduced their target price on UnitedHealth Group from $625.00 to $610.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Twenty-one equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $630.35.

UnitedHealth Group Stock Performance

Shares of UnitedHealth Group stock opened at $595.07 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $511.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $541.87. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The company has a market capitalization of $544.32 billion, a PE ratio of 38.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.61. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated has a 52 week low of $436.38 and a 52 week high of $630.73.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The healthcare conglomerate reported $6.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.74 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $100.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $101.60 billion. UnitedHealth Group had a net margin of 3.60% and a return on equity of 26.69%. The company’s revenue was up 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $5.83 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that UnitedHealth Group Incorporated will post 29.54 earnings per share for the current year.

UnitedHealth Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were given a dividend of $2.10 per share. This represents a $8.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.41%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. UnitedHealth Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.19%.

Insider Transactions at UnitedHealth Group

In other news, Director Timothy Patrick Flynn purchased 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $511.57 per share, with a total value of $511,570.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 4,500 shares in the company, valued at $2,302,065. This represents a 28.57 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.33% 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.