UnitedHealth Group (UNH) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know
In the latest trading session, UnitedHealth Group (UNH) closed at $399.16, marking a +0.32% move from the previous day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.18%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the largest U.S. health insurer had lost 2.91% over the past month. This has lagged the Medical sector's gain of 4.62% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.43% in that time.
UNH will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, UNH is projected to report earnings of $4.40 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 38.2%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $69.55 billion, up 11.92% from the year-ago period.
UNH's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $18.61 per share and revenue of $282.16 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +10.25% and +9.73%, respectively.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for UNH should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.04% higher. UNH is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Investors should also note UNH's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 21.39. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 18.63.
Meanwhile, UNH's PEG ratio is currently 1.62. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. Medical - HMOs stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.19 based on yesterday's closing prices.
The Medical - HMOs industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 44, putting it in the top 18% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
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UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (UNH) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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