UnitedHealth Group (UNH) closed at $338.96 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.19% move from the prior day. The stock's performance was ahead of the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.26%. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a rise of 0.6%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw an increase of 0.25%.
The largest U.S. health insurer's stock has climbed by 1% in the past month, exceeding the Medical sector's gain of 0.92% and lagging the S&P 500's gain of 1.57%.
The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of UnitedHealth Group in its forthcoming earnings report. The company is scheduled to release its earnings on January 27, 2026. The company is predicted to post an EPS of $2.09, indicating a 69.31% decline compared to the equivalent quarter last year. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $113.64 billion, showing a 12.73% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.
For the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $16.3 per share and a revenue of $448.02 billion, representing changes of -41.07% and 0%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors should also note any recent changes 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 business outlook.
Our research reveals that these estimate alterations are directly linked with the stock price performance in the near future. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, 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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. UnitedHealth Group presently features a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
In terms of valuation, UnitedHealth Group is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 19.03. This denotes a premium relative to the industry average Forward P/E of 15.72.
We can also see that UNH currently has a PEG ratio of 2.02. The PEG ratio is akin to the commonly utilized P/E ratio, but this measure also incorporates the company's anticipated earnings growth rate. As the market closed yesterday, the Medical - HMOs industry was having an average PEG ratio of 1.05.
The Medical - HMOs industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 231, finds itself in the bottom 6% echelons 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.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (UNH): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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