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Medical Properties (MPW) Flat As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Medical Properties (MPW - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $23.51, making no change from the previous trading session. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.92%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.51%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.54%.

Coming into today, shares of the health care real estate investment trust had gained 6.28% in the past month. In that same time, the Finance sector gained 3.59%, while the S&P 500 lost 0.85%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Medical Properties as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect Medical Properties to post earnings of $0.46 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 12.2%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $397.96 million, up 19.22% from the year-ago period.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Medical Properties should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.39% lower within the past month. Medical Properties currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note Medical Properties's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 12.41. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 15.46, which means Medical Properties is trading at a discount to the group.

It is also worth noting that MPW currently has a PEG ratio of 1.57. 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. MPW's industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.67 as of yesterday's close.

The REIT and Equity Trust - Other industry is part of the Finance sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 86, which puts it in the top 34% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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