5 Best Healthcare Stocks To Buy Now

1. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 116

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) is expected to see its bottom line grow at a healthy pace for the next few years, according to Sarah James at Cantor Fitzgerald. The analyst initiated coverage on the stock with an Overweight rating and a target price of $591 on April 20. James sees a favourable setup for UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) as the company has been able to diversify its operations and incorporate innovation into its business model.

Here’s what RiverPark Advisors said about UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) in its Q1 2023 investor letter:

“UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH): We re-initiated a position in UnitedHealthcare, a position we last held in January of 2022. The company’s stock price had fallen roughly 17% from its peak in October 2021 on fears about Medicare reimbursement rates, and we used this dislocation to start purchasing shares of what we believe to be the most dominant and complete managed care company in the industry.

With several at-scale and interconnected businesses, UNH occupies a unique position within the U.S. healthcare system. UnitedHealth has (a) a dominant managed care organization in commercial, Medicare and Medicaid markets, (b) a large and growing presence in local care delivery (OptumHealth’s physicians and ambulatory service centers), (c) one of only three at scale pharmacy benefits managers (OptumRx’s PBM) and (d) a fast-growing healthcare information technology (HCIT), consulting and revenue cycle management (RCM) business (OptumInsight). The combination of the largest MCO (UnitedHealth) with the faster-growing, higher-margin Optum services businesses positions the company to capture a large portion of the future growth opportunities in the U.S. healthcare services industry. We expect balanced growth from both health insurance and health services leading to consistent high-single-digit revenue growth for the company. With margin expansion from scale, share buybacks from its strong cash generating ability (the company currently has $30 billion in net cash), and continued strategic acquisitions, we believe the company can generate mid-teens or better earnings growth for the foreseeable future.

UNH shares were down slightly from where we re-initiated a position during the quarter, causing them to be a top detractor (-0.02%) in an overall strong quarter where few positions were down.”

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