Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Is UnitedHealth Group (UNH) Stock Outpacing Its Medical Peers This Year?

Read MoreHide Full Article

For those looking to find strong Medical stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. UnitedHealth Group (UNH - Free Report) is a stock that can certainly grab the attention of many investors, but do its recent returns compare favorably to the sector as a whole? One simple way to answer this question is to take a look at the year-to-date performance of UNH and the rest of the Medical group's stocks.

UnitedHealth Group is a member of our Medical group, which includes 817 different companies and currently sits at #6 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different groups, measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the sector to gauge the strength of each group.

The Zacks Rank is a successful stock-picking model that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions. The system highlights a number of different stocks that could be poised to outperform the broader market over the next one to three months. UNH is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for UNH's full-year earnings has moved 0.74% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Our latest available data shows that UNH has returned about 16.27% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Medical group have gained about 0.02% on average. As we can see, UnitedHealth Group is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Looking more specifically, UNH belongs to the Medical - HMOs industry, a group that includes 13 individual stocks and currently sits at #35 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 17.52% this year, meaning that UNH is slightly underperforming its industry in terms of year-to-date returns.

Investors in the Medical sector will want to keep a close eye on UNH as it attempts to continue its solid performance.


See More Zacks Research for These Tickers


Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report FREE:


UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (UNH) - free report >>

Published in