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

UnitedHealth Group (UNH) closed at $498.19 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.28% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.2%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.59%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.54%.

Coming into today, shares of the largest U.S. health insurer had gained 1.07% in the past month. In that same time, the Medical sector lost 1.59%, while the S&P 500 gained 4.14%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from UnitedHealth Group as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect UnitedHealth Group to post earnings of $6.08 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 9.16%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $90.54 billion, up 12.7% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $24.97 per share and revenue of $364.75 billion. These totals would mark changes of +12.53% and +12.52%, respectively, from last year.

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Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for UnitedHealth Group. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

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 0.04% lower. UnitedHealth Group is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Digging into valuation, UnitedHealth Group currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 20.01. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 16.96.

Also, we should mention that UNH has a PEG ratio of 1.45. 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. The Medical - HMOs industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.08 as of yesterday's close.

The Medical - HMOs industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 183, putting it in the bottom 28% 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.

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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