Universal Health Services (UHS) Stock Price, Fundamentals & Analysis

What UHS does

Universal Health Services (UHS) is a US stock in the Healthcare sector, specifically the Medical Care Facilities industry. Through its subsidiaries, it owns and operates acute care hospitals and outpatient and behavioral health care facilities across the United States. The company operates through two segments: Acute Care Hospital Services and Behavioral Health Care Services. Its hospitals offer services including general and specialty surgery, internal medicine, obstetrics, emergency room care, radiology, oncology, diagnostic and coronary care, pediatrics, pharmacy, and behavioral health services. UHS also provides commercial health insurance services, capital resources, and various management services such as central purchasing, information systems, finance and control systems, facilities planning, physician recruitment, administrative personnel management, marketing, and public relations. Founded in 1978 and headquartered in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, UHS employs 102,000 people.

Key numbers explained

• $181.39 is the current share price, the amount you would pay for one share of UHS right now.
• The trailing P/E ratio of 7.4 compares the share price to the last 12 months of earnings per share ($24.5). A lower P/E can suggest the stock is priced more conservatively relative to recent earnings.
• The forward P/E ratio of 7.6 uses expected future earnings instead of past results, offering a look at how the market values what the company might earn next.
• The dividend yield of 0.45% shows the annual dividend as a percentage of the share price; UHS pays out 3% of its earnings as dividends, with the ex-dividend date of 1 Sept. 2026.
• Beta of 1.06 measures how much the stock tends to move compared to the overall market; a beta slightly above 1 means UHS is a bit more volatile than the market average.
• The 52-week range of $140.08 – $246.33 shows the lowest and highest prices UHS has traded at over the past year, while the -10.2% price change over that period indicates a decline from one year ago.
• Revenue growth of 8.3% year over year, based on $18.11 mld. in trailing 12-month revenue, shows how fast the company's top line has expanded.
• Return on equity of 20.9% indicates how effectively the company generates profit from shareholders' equity, while the debt-to-equity ratio of 68.7% reflects the mix of debt and equity used to finance the business.

Recent news

Leerink Partners adjusted its Universal Health Services price target to $205 from $198, maintaining an Outperform rating, while JPMorgan adjusted its UHS price target to $200 from $205, maintaining a Neutral rating. Other headlines highlight broader industry themes, including Acadia Healthcare's capacity growth and cash flow, cost trends at CVS, and questions about operational resiliency for HCA. One headline specifically asks why UHS is up 5.7% since its last earnings report.

What to watch

As a large-cap Healthcare stock, UHS is part of the S&P 500, and its performance can be influenced by regulatory changes, reimbursement rates, and patient volume trends. Investors often compare UHS with peers such as Steris (STE), which operates in healthcare services and infection prevention, or with companies in adjacent sectors like Charles River Laboratories (CRL) and Danaher Corporation (DHR). Broader factors such as interest rates, insurance policy shifts, and labor costs in the medical care facilities industry can also affect UHS's outlook.