UNH vs. ELV, CI, HUM, CNC, 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), Humana (HUM), Centene (CNC), 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 (NYSE:UNH) and Elevance Health (NYSE:ELV) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, community ranking and profitability.
In the previous week, Elevance Health had 13 more articles in the media than UnitedHealth Group. MarketBeat recorded 39 mentions for Elevance Health and 26 mentions for UnitedHealth Group. UnitedHealth Group's average media sentiment score of 0.51 beat Elevance Health's score of 0.35 indicating that UnitedHealth Group is being referred to more favorably in the media.
UnitedHealth Group has higher revenue and earnings than Elevance Health. Elevance Health is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than UnitedHealth Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Elevance Health has a net margin of 3.89% compared to UnitedHealth Group's net margin of 3.66%. UnitedHealth Group's return on equity of 26.55% beat Elevance Health's return on equity.
UnitedHealth Group has a beta of 0.6, meaning that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Elevance Health has a beta of 0.84, meaning that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500.
UnitedHealth Group currently has a consensus target price of $614.17, indicating a potential upside of 7.79%. Elevance Health has a consensus target price of $604.29, indicating a potential upside of 14.55%. Given Elevance Health's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Elevance Health is more favorable than UnitedHealth Group.
87.9% of UnitedHealth Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.2% of Elevance Health shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of UnitedHealth Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Elevance Health shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
UnitedHealth Group pays an annual dividend of $8.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Elevance Health pays an annual dividend of $6.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. UnitedHealth Group pays out 51.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Elevance Health pays out 24.6% 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 received 843 more outperform votes than Elevance Health when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 80.55% of users gave UnitedHealth Group an outperform vote while only 67.01% of users gave Elevance Health an outperform vote.
Summary
UnitedHealth Group beats Elevance Health on 11 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding UNH and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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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