Unitedhealth Group Inc (UNH): Investing In A Time Of Crisis

Unitedhealth Group Inc (NYSE:UNH) currently has a daily average trading volume of 4.24M but it saw 5177149 shares traded in last market. With a market cap of 419.83B USD, the company’s current market price of $455.38 came falling about -0.95 while comparing to the previous closing price of $459.74. In past 52 weeks, the stock remained buoying in the range of price level as high as $554.70 and as low as $445.68.

Taking a look at 20-day trading activity of Unitedhealth Group Inc (UNH) gives us an average price of $484.35, while its current price level is -17.91% below from 52-week high level whereas it is 2.18% above from lowest level seen by the stock during that period. Simple moving average of 50 days or SMA-50 of the stock’s closing price is $498.88 while that of 200 days or SMA-200 reads an average of $508.87. A closer look into the stock’s movement over the week reveals that its volatility is standing at 1.94% during that period while stretching the period over a month that decreases to 1.59%. It is also necessary to take a look into other indicators of a stock too, to get a better idea about its price movement. And in doing so, we find stock’s 14-day relative strength index (RSI) standing at 27.12 which implies that the stock is in oversold territory.

The company’s shares got several price updates from the analyst firms in past one month and most recent of them is from the HSBC Securities which upgraded the stock as “Hold” in its note to investors issued on April 04, 2024, recommending a price target of $460 for it. HSBC Securities issued its recommendations for the stock as it downgraded the price target for the stock in the range of between $550 and $480.

Over the week, UNH’s stock price is moving -7.65% down while it is -3.76% when we observe its performance for the past one month. Year-to-date it is -13.50% down and over the past year, the stock is showing a downside performance of -7.85%.

The latest quarterly earnings report issued by the company was for quarter ended 12/30/2023, when its quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $5.72 beat the consensus estimate of $5.56 for the same. For UNH, analysts are forecasting an EPS-growth rate of 18.90% for current year and estimate for EPS growth in next year is 12.80%. In next quarter, company is expected to be making quarterly sales of $92.75 billion as analysts are expecting the sales for current fiscal year at $372.33 billion and seeing the company making $401.21 billion in sales next year. Moreover, analysts are in estimates of $92.37 billion for current-quarter revenue.

Currently, Unitedhealth Group Inc’s total number of outstanding shares is 924.00M with 0.24% of that held by the insiders while 90.31% of its common stock has been owned by the institutions. Company’s return on investment (ROI) stands at 14.83% and return on equity (ROE) at 26.88%. It has a price to earnings ratio (P/E ratio) of 19.09 while having a 14.56 of forward P/E ratio. Stock’s beta reads 0.57. Stock has a price to book (P/B) ratio of 4.74 while price to sale or P/S ratio amounts to 1.13. Its return on asset (ROA) is 8.47% on average.