UnitedHealth Group (UNH) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know

UnitedHealth Group (UNH) closed at $241.47 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.79% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.46%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.13%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.63%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the largest U.S. health insurer had lost 7.45% over the past month. This has lagged the Medical sector's gain of 0.39% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.08% 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 April 16, 2019. On that day, UNH is projected to report earnings of $3.58 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 17.76%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $59.66 billion, up 8.11% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $14.62 per share and revenue of $244.23 billion, which would represent changes of +13.51% and +7.95%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for UNH. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. UNH is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Digging into valuation, UNH currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 16.65. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 15.05, which means UNH is trading at a premium to the group.

Meanwhile, UNH's PEG ratio is currently 1.25. 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. UNH's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.08 as of yesterday's close.

The Medical - HMOs industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 21, which puts it in the top 9% 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.

Make sure to utilize Zacks. Com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.