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Should Value Investors Buy Universal Health Services (UHS) Stock?

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While the proven Zacks Rank places an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find strong stocks, we also know that investors tend to develop their own individual strategies. With this in mind, we are always looking at value, growth, and momentum trends to discover great companies.

Looking at the history of these trends, perhaps none is more beloved than value investing. This strategy simply looks to identify companies that are being undervalued by the broader market. Value investors use fundamental analysis and traditional valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are being undervalued by the market at large.

Luckily, Zacks has developed its own Style Scores system in an effort to find stocks with specific traits. Value investors will be interested in the system's "Value" category. Stocks with both "A" grades in the Value category and high Zacks Ranks are among the strongest value stocks on the market right now.

One company to watch right now is Universal Health Services (UHS - Free Report) . UHS is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy), as well as an A grade for Value. The stock has a Forward P/E ratio of 13.80. This compares to its industry's average Forward P/E of 16.22. Over the past year, UHS's Forward P/E has been as high as 15.12 and as low as 10.83, with a median of 12.91.

Investors will also notice that UHS has a PEG ratio of 0.73. This popular figure is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also considers a company's expected EPS growth rate. UHS's PEG compares to its industry's average PEG of 1.19. UHS's PEG has been as high as 1.56 and as low as 0.69, with a median of 0.92, all within the past year.

Value investors will likely look at more than just these metrics, but the above data helps show that Universal Health Services is likely undervalued currently. And when considering the strength of its earnings outlook, UHS sticks out at as one of the market's strongest value stocks.


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