In the latest trading session, UnitedHealth Group (UNH) closed at $405.27, marking a -0.44% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500’s 0.28% loss on the day.
Prior to today’s trading, shares of the largest U.S. health insurer had lost 2.79% over the past month. This has lagged the Medical sector’s loss of 2.31% and the S&P 500’s loss of 0.56% in that time.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from UNH as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be October 14, 2021. On that day, UNH is projected to report earnings of $4.40 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 25.36%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $71.37 billion, up 9.61% from the year-ago period.
UNH’s full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $18.74 per share and revenue of $285.18 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +11.02% and +10.91%, respectively.
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for UNH. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company’s business and profitability.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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.
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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.15% higher. UNH is holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now.
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that UNH has a Forward P/E ratio of 21.72 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 18.56, which means UNH is trading at a premium to the group.
It is also worth noting that UNH currently has a PEG ratio of 1.64. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock’s expected earnings growth rate. Medical – HMOs stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.18 based on yesterday’s closing prices.
The Medical – HMOs industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 100, putting it in the top 40% 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.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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