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 compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, risk, profitability, media sentiment, institutional ownership and earnings.
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.
Universal Health Services has a beta of 1.3, suggesting that its stock price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Acadia Healthcare has a beta of 0.9, suggesting that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500.
86.1% of Universal Health Services shares are owned by institutional investors. 16.4% of Universal Health Services shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.0% of Acadia Healthcare shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
In the previous week, Universal Health Services had 2 more articles in the media than Acadia Healthcare. MarketBeat recorded 18 mentions for Universal Health Services and 16 mentions for Acadia Healthcare. Universal Health Services' average media sentiment score of 0.69 beat Acadia Healthcare's score of 0.14 indicating that Universal Health Services is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Universal Health Services currently has a consensus target price of $217.08, indicating a potential upside of 9.78%. Acadia Healthcare has a consensus target price of $35.09, indicating a potential upside of 44.47%. Given Acadia Healthcare's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Acadia Healthcare is more favorable than Universal Health Services.
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.
Summary
Universal Health Services beats Acadia Healthcare on 12 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 10/14/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
