In the latest market close, UnitedHealth Group (UNH) reached $565.19, with a +0.82% movement compared to the previous day. The stock's performance was ahead of the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.3%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.35%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.25%.
Shares of the largest U.S. health insurer witnessed a loss of 10.34% over the previous month, trailing the performance of the Medical sector with its loss of 3.43% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.09%.
The upcoming earnings release of UnitedHealth Group will be of great interest to investors. The company is predicted to post an EPS of $6.74, indicating a 9.42% growth compared to the equivalent quarter last year. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $101.75 billion, up 7.76% from the year-ago period.
UNH's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $27.61 per share and revenue of $401.48 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +9.91% and +8.03%, respectively.
Investors should also take note of any recent adjustments to analyst estimates for UnitedHealth Group. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed a 0.02% decrease. UnitedHealth Group presently features a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
In terms of valuation, UnitedHealth Group is presently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 20.31. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 13.08, which means UnitedHealth Group is trading at a premium to the group.
Investors should also note that UNH has a PEG ratio of 1.65 right now. 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. As the market closed yesterday, the Medical - HMOs industry was having an average PEG ratio of 1.01.
The Medical - HMOs industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 180, which puts it in the bottom 29% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Don't forget to use Zacks.com to keep track of all these stock-moving metrics, and others, in the upcoming trading sessions.
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