UNH vs. ELV, CI, CNC, HUM, MOH, OSCR, ALHC, TRUP, CLOV, and NEUE
Should you be buying UnitedHealth Group stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of UnitedHealth Group include Elevance Health (ELV), The Cigna Group (CI), Centene (CNC), Humana (HUM), Molina Healthcare (MOH), Oscar Health (OSCR), Alignment Healthcare (ALHC), Trupanion (TRUP), Clover Health Investments (CLOV), and NeueHealth (NEUE). These companies are all part of the "hospital & medical service plans" industry.
UnitedHealth Group vs.
UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) and Elevance Health (NYSE:ELV) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, community ranking, media sentiment, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, dividends and earnings.
In the previous week, UnitedHealth Group had 201 more articles in the media than Elevance Health. MarketBeat recorded 267 mentions for UnitedHealth Group and 66 mentions for Elevance Health. Elevance Health's average media sentiment score of 0.78 beat UnitedHealth Group's score of 0.31 indicating that Elevance Health is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
UnitedHealth Group has a beta of 0.56, suggesting that its share price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Elevance Health has a beta of 0.66, suggesting that its share price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500.
87.9% of UnitedHealth Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.2% of Elevance Health shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of UnitedHealth Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Elevance Health shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
UnitedHealth Group has a net margin of 3.60% compared to Elevance Health's net margin of 3.38%. UnitedHealth Group's return on equity of 26.69% beat Elevance Health's return on equity.
UnitedHealth Group has higher revenue and earnings than Elevance Health. UnitedHealth Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Elevance Health, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
UnitedHealth Group pays an annual dividend of $8.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Elevance Health pays an annual dividend of $6.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. UnitedHealth Group pays out 35.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Elevance Health pays out 26.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. UnitedHealth Group has raised its dividend for 15 consecutive years and Elevance Health has raised its dividend for 14 consecutive years. UnitedHealth Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
UnitedHealth Group presently has a consensus target price of $451.43, suggesting a potential upside of 40.30%. Elevance Health has a consensus target price of $510.38, suggesting a potential upside of 23.73%. Given UnitedHealth Group's higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe UnitedHealth Group is more favorable than Elevance Health.
UnitedHealth Group received 869 more outperform votes than Elevance Health when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 80.49% of users gave UnitedHealth Group an outperform vote while only 67.23% of users gave Elevance Health an outperform vote.
Summary
UnitedHealth Group beats Elevance Health on 16 of the 22 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 {thisCompany.Symbol} 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.
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This page (NYSE:UNH) was last updated on 5/21/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
