In the latest market close, UnitedHealth Group (UNH) reached $467.05, with a -1.67% movement compared to the previous day. This move was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.76%. At the same time, the Dow lost 1.48%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 2.64%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the largest U.S. health insurer had lost 12.45% over the past month. This has lagged the Medical sector's gain of 1.11% and the S&P 500's loss of 1.26% in that time.

The upcoming earnings release of UnitedHealth Group will be of great interest to investors. The company is expected to report EPS of $7.24, up 4.78% from the prior-year quarter. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $110.97 billion, showing a 11.2% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.

For the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $29.54 per share and a revenue of $451.19 billion, representing changes of +6.8% and +12.72%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for UnitedHealth Group. These latest adjustments often mirror the shifting dynamics of short-term business patterns. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the company's business health and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed a 0.34% decrease. UnitedHealth Group presently features a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

With respect to valuation, UnitedHealth Group is currently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 16.08. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 15.98.

It is also worth noting that UNH currently has a PEG ratio of 1.3. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. Medical - HMOs stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.05 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Medical - HMOs industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 201, finds itself in the bottom 20% echelons of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered 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.

Ensure to harness Zacks.com to stay updated with all these stock-shifting metrics, among others, in the next trading sessions.

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UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (UNH) : Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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