By MarketNewsVideo United Healthcare (UNH) was initiated with a buy rating by UBS (UBS) as the company’s growth should drive share price appreciation. A $72 price target was set. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Markets
By MarketNewsVideo United Healthcare (UNH) was initiated with a buy rating by UBS (UBS) as the company’s growth should drive share price appreciation. A $72 price target was set. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Markets
By Anders Bylund, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
Past performance is never a guarantee of future success. But some stocks rise for good reason. Here are two Dow Jones stocks that are chasing all-time highs as we speak — without getting expensive in the process. These are momentum stocks of exceptionally high quality, and they may never be this cheap again.
If you need another indication that the market is firing on all cylinders, consider this: 15 of the 30 Dow components trade within 10% of their all-time highs right now.
Health insurance giant UnitedHealth set its all-time record in December of 2005. Then the company was hit with an options-backdating scandal that ultimately displaced its CEO, an industrywide bout of investor skepticism, and, of course, the pitch-black recession shared by the rest of the known universe.
Now UnitedHealth is back in record-level neighborhood and looking stronger than before. You can — and probably should — buy this stock right now.
Since its fall from the original summit, UnitedHealth has reshaped its business plan, increased dividend payments nearly eightfold, and finally joined the elite Dow index. It’s a longtime and extremely successful recommendation of two Foolish newsletters and has a perfect five-star CAPS rating to boot. The reasons to buy this stock pile up to the rafters of Wall Street and Main Street alike.
Walt Disney is a more obvious success story. This stock hit its lifelong peak as recently as last month and has crushed the Dow by more than tripling in price over the last decade. Is the Mouse bound to run out of steam, or can you still buy the stock at current prices?
I think it’s pretty obvious that the best is yet to come. Disney thrives on game-changing acquisitions like its Pixar and Marvel buyouts. Pixar still churns out surefire hits like clockwork, the benefits of the Marvel buy are still unfolding, and now Han Solo has joined the party in the recent Lucasfilm buyout. It’s like pouring nitroglycerin on the fire.
Mickey Mouse is shrinking in the Disney universe as he becomes surrounded by equally powerful consumer-attention magnets. The character stable is becoming as diversified as the business operations, which include movies, TV content, cruise ships, theme parks, lunch boxes, and more. It’ll take a meltdown of epic proportions to stop this gravy train.
So if you’re looking for stocks to buy right now, you really can’t go wrong with these two winners. They’re rising for a reason and won’t be going back down.
It’s easy to forget that Walt Disney is more than just the House of Mouse. Much of Disney’s allure for investors lies in its diversity, and The Motley Fool’s premium research report lays out the case for investing in Disney today. This report includes the key items investors must watch, as well as the opportunities and threats the company faces going …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
By Anders Bylund, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
The wealth-building power of compound interest will never cease to amaze me. It’s a story of patience and attention to detail, where small differences in the short term add up to massive divergence over decades. In the end, the biggest winners don’t always deliver the fattest share-price returns.
Today, we’re looking at the newest member of the Dow Jones Industrials index. UnitedHealth Group became a significant dividend-payer only recently, but it’s never too late to start an all-night party.
Setting the stage
UnitedHealth paid a pittance of a dividend for many years. The policy was started at $0.01 per share, once yearly, way back in 1999. A full decade later, the yearly payout remained a minuscule $0.03 per share.
UnitedHealth absolutely crushed the Dow during those 10 years — no thanks to dividend boosts.
However, that all changed in 2010.
UnitedHealth had been using its spare cash on big, splashy acquisitions, but the well of available targets was drying up due to changing congressional policies. So the board of directors decided to divert some of the buyout reserves into a much more substantial dividend policy.
Suddenly, UnitedHealth paid out $0.50 in annual dividends per share — and started raising the payouts every year.
UNH Dividend data by YCharts.
The result? The formerly forgettable dividend yield is growing by leaps and bounds, and it now sits at a respectable 1.6%.
How far did UnitedHealth climb?
It’s still one of the weakest payouts in the Dow, with only five of the 30 blue chips offering a thinner yield. But UnitedHealth’s policy has more room to grow than any of its fellow bottom-dwellers.
The company covers its dividend costs with just 15% of its annual income today. The three lowest-paying stocks consume far larger slices of their income pies at the dividend table.
| Company |
Dividend Yield |
Payout Ratio |
10-Year Annual Dividend Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Home Depot |
0.02% |
15% |
19% |
|
Bank of America |
0.3% |
38% |
(29%) |
|
American Express |
1.2% |
46% |
10% |
|
UnitedHealth |
1.6% |
69% |
60% |
Data from S&P Capital IQ.
What’s going on?
All of these companies have their reasons for not paying larger dividends, of course.
Home Depot is more concerned with cost savings and revenue growth than straight-up shareholder service at the moment. The home improvement retailer has been through a few tough years, but it has surged back to growing both sales and earnings. For Home Depot, this is not the time to make a dramatic dividend move, but rather to reap the rewards of efficiency lessons learned in the last five years.
Bank of America slashed its dividend by 98% during the subprime crisis of 2008. Even if the bank wanted to increase its payouts today, it would have to gain regulatory approval first. A recent payout boost at fellow crash-hampered megabank Wells Fargo has raised hopes that B of A might get that crucial nod of approval …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
By MarketNewsVideo UnitedHealth Group (UNH) was upgraded by Oppenheimer (OPY) from perform to outperform with a price target of $66 as the firm believes that the the current stock price is an attractive entry point despite a pessimistic outlook. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Markets
By MarketNewsVideo Conocophillips (COP) maintained its quarterly dividend of 66 cents per share. The dividend is payable March 1, 2013, to stockholders of record at the close of business on Feb. 19, 2013 …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Markets
These are some of this Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from Wall St. research calls.
Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) cut to Market Perform at Raymond James and cut to Hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. (NYSE: BBVA) raised to Neutral at UBS.
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) raised to Buy at Citigroup.
CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) cut to Neutral at Nomura.
Clearwire Corp. (NASDAQ: CLWR) cut to Underperform at D.A. Davidson.
D.R. Horton…
Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (BIDU, BBVA, BBBY, CIT, CLWR, DHI, HMY, HGG, KBH, M, MRVL, PHM, RYL, SD, SWC, TGT, TOL, UNH, WSM, ZNGA) originally appeared on DailyFinance.com on 2013-02-05T08:25:00Z.
Permalink | Email this | Comments
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
By Trefis Team, Contributor We anticipate UNH will continue to see high single-digit revenue growth on the back of new customers, mainly from government funded Medicare and Medicaid coverage plans.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
By MarketNewsVideo UnitedHealth (UNH) was downgraded by Deutsche Bank (DB) to hold from buy with a price target of $61 due to increasing price competition.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Markets