Back to top

Image: Bigstock

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

Read MoreHide Full Article

In the latest trading session, Medical Properties (MPW - Free Report) closed at $21.84, marking a -0.46% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.96%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.61%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.04%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the health care real estate investment trust had gained 2.38% over the past month. This has outpaced the Finance sector's loss of 2.85% and the S&P 500's loss of 0.21% in that time.

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 $395.33 million, up 18.43% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $1.75 per share and revenue of $1.51 billion, which would represent changes of +11.46% and +20.65%, respectively, from the prior year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Medical Properties. 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 company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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.

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 0.14% lower. Medical Properties is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Digging into valuation, Medical Properties currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 12.56. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 18.31.

Investors should also note that MPW has a PEG ratio of 1.59 right now. 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. The REIT and Equity Trust - Other industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.91 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 155, which puts it in the bottom 39% 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.


See More Zacks Research for These Tickers


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


Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (MPW) - free report >>

Published in