: UnitedHealth raises dividend, to boost yield above 1.5%

UnitedHealth Group Inc. UNH said Wednesday that it raised its quarterly cash dividend by 14%, to $1.88 a share from $1.65 a share. The health insurer and health care services company’s shareholders of record on June 19 will be paid the new dividend on June 27. Based on the stock’s Tuesday closing price of $487.57, the new annual dividend rate implies a dividend yield of 1.54%, which compares with the yield for the Health Care Select Sector SPDR exchange-traded fund XLV of 1.58% and with the implied yield for the S&P 500 SPX of 1.60%. UnitedHealth’s stock, which was indicated up about 0.3% in the premarket has lost 8.0% year to date, while the health care ETF has lost 4.5% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA , of which UnitedHealth is a component, has tacked on 1.3%.

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