What Makes UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (UNH) a Prospective Bet?
Andvari Associates, an investment management firm, released its second quarter 2024 investor letter, a copy of which can be downloaded here. Year to date, the portfolio appreciated 7.7% net of fees while the SPDR S&P 500 ETF rose 15.2%. There are two primary causes of Andvari's trailing returns: (1) the firm does not hold some of the biggest and best-performing companies, such as Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Amazon; and (2) poor performance of Mesa. Andvari invested in a diverse range of companies in terms of market cap. Andvari's performance in the first half of the year is in line with what the market typically generates in a complete year. It can feel disappointing, though, if compared with higher performance of the large caps. In addition, you can check the fund's top 5 holdings to find out its best picks for 2024.
Andvari Associates highlighted stocks like UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH), in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) is a diversified healthcare company that operates through UnitedHealthcare, Optum Health, Optum Insight, and Optum Rx segments. The one-month return of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) was 17.64%, and its shares gained 14.17% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On July 30, 2024, UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) stock closed at $576.33 per share with a market capitalization of $530.446 billion.
Andvari Associates stated the following regarding UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
"UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) is one of the largest providers and distributors of services in the $5 trillion U.S. healthcare market. The company provides services to employers, individuals, and those eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. United’s Optum segment provides pharmacy benefit services and a slate of other insights and services to the major players in the healthcare space: physicians, hospitals, government agencies, and life science companies.
This is a company that provides essential services and has a strong wind at its back. Over two million people are enrolling in Medicare and Medicare Advantage every year. With the increase of healthcare spending every year, the value of the services and insights provided by Optum will only increase. United is a solid business with a high teens returns on its capital. After reinvesting in its businesses, United will likely return $16 billion in 2024 in the form of dividends and share repurchases off a revenue base of ~$380 billion."
A senior healthcare professional giving advice to a patient in a clinic.
UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) is in 22nd position on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 104 hedge fund portfolios held UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) at the end of the first quarter which was 113 in the previous quarter. Revenues of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) increased by about $14 billion in the first half of the year because of solid contributions from the across company, led by double-digit growth at Optum (see the details here). While we acknowledge the potential of UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we discussed UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) and shared the list of best health insurance stocks to buy. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.