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 investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, media sentiment, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, risk and analyst recommendations.
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 held by institutional investors. 16.4% of Universal Health Services shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.0% of Acadia Healthcare shares are held by company 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.
Universal Health Services presently has a consensus target price of $224.77, suggesting a potential upside of 23.99%. Acadia Healthcare has a consensus target price of $47.94, suggesting a potential upside of 106.66%. Given Acadia Healthcare's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Acadia Healthcare is more favorable than Universal Health Services.
Universal Health Services has a net margin of 7.44% compared to Acadia Healthcare's net margin of 5.94%. Universal Health Services' return on equity of 17.79% beat Acadia Healthcare's return on equity.
In the previous week, Universal Health Services had 11 more articles in the media than Acadia Healthcare. MarketBeat recorded 13 mentions for Universal Health Services and 2 mentions for Acadia Healthcare. Universal Health Services' average media sentiment score of 1.21 beat Acadia Healthcare's score of 0.56 indicating that Universal Health Services is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Universal Health Services has a beta of 1.28, indicating that its share price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Acadia Healthcare has a beta of 0.93, indicating that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Universal Health Services beats Acadia Healthcare on 12 of the 15 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 7/7/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
