UHS vs. ACHC, CYH, ELV, HCA, HUM, ITGR, ALC, THC, EHC, and ENSG
Should you be buying Universal Health Services stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Universal Health Services include Acadia Healthcare (ACHC), Community Health Systems (CYH), Elevance Health (ELV), HCA Healthcare (HCA), Humana (HUM), Integer (ITGR), Alcon (ALC), Tenet Healthcare (THC), Encompass Health (EHC), and The Ensign Group (ENSG). These companies are all part of the "medical" sector.
Universal Health Services vs. Its Competitors
Universal Health Services (NYSE:UHS) and Acadia Healthcare (NASDAQ:ACHC) are both medical companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, risk, institutional ownership and earnings.
Universal Health Services has a beta of 1.28, indicating that its stock price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Acadia Healthcare has a beta of 0.89, indicating that its stock price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Universal Health Services presently has a consensus target price of $214.08, suggesting a potential upside of 9.99%. Acadia Healthcare has a consensus target price of $39.00, suggesting a potential upside of 77.11%. Given Acadia Healthcare's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Acadia Healthcare is more favorable than Universal Health Services.
In the previous week, Universal Health Services had 10 more articles in the media than Acadia Healthcare. MarketBeat recorded 13 mentions for Universal Health Services and 3 mentions for Acadia Healthcare. Acadia Healthcare's average media sentiment score of 1.07 beat Universal Health Services' score of 0.96 indicating that Acadia Healthcare is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Universal Health Services has higher revenue and earnings than Acadia Healthcare. Universal Health Services is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Acadia Healthcare, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
86.1% of Universal Health Services shares are owned by institutional investors. 16.4% of Universal Health Services shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.0% of Acadia Healthcare shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Universal Health Services has a net margin of 7.66% compared to Acadia Healthcare's net margin of 4.31%. Universal Health Services' return on equity of 18.25% beat Acadia Healthcare's return on equity.
Summary
Universal Health Services beats Acadia Healthcare on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding UHS and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
Universal Health Services Competitors List
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This page (NYSE:UHS) was last updated on 9/23/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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