UnitedHealth Group (UNH) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

UnitedHealth Group (UNH) closed at $245.80 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.18% move from the prior day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.09%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.09%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.62%.

Coming into today, shares of the largest U.S. health insurer had gained 3.62% in the past month. In that same time, the Medical sector gained 3.37%, while the S&P 500 gained 2.08%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from UNH as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, UNH is projected to report earnings of $3.47 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 10.51%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $60.61 billion, up 8.07% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $14.71 per share and revenue of $243.86 billion, which would represent changes of +14.21% and +7.79%, 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. 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.

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 0.03% higher. UNH is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, UNH is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 16.68. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 14.6.

Also, we should mention that UNH has a PEG ratio of 1.31. 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. The Medical - HMOs was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.01 at yesterday's closing price.

The Medical - HMOs industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 18, putting it in the top 8% 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.

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