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

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Medical Properties (MPW - Free Report) closed at $8.48 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.31% move from the prior day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.01% loss on the day. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.23%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.97%.

Heading into today, shares of the health care real estate investment trust had gained 6.08% over the past month, lagging the Finance sector's gain of 6.87% and the S&P 500's gain of 6.23% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Medical Properties as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, Medical Properties is projected to report earnings of $0.37 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 21.28%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $351.97 million, down 14.11% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $1.60 per share and revenue of $1.45 billion. These totals would mark changes of -12.09% and -6.12%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Medical Properties. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 2.37% lower within the past month. Medical Properties is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).

Looking at its valuation, Medical Properties is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 5.24. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 10.76.

We can also see that MPW currently has a PEG ratio of 0.52. 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 2.29 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 99, which puts it in the top 40% 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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