Universal Health Services (UHS)
Forward P/E is 7.69x against a peer median of 13.23x, a ratio of 0.58x — well below the fair range — with trailing P/E 7.53x and PEG 1.09. Latest-quarter revenue grew 8.3% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), above the group pace, so the value-trap check passes: revenue is growing, not shrinking. Delivered demand check: the health care payers, services & facilities group's median growth was 6.2% — demand steady, and Universal Health Services is growing above that pace.
What would change this label: Move to FAIRLY PRICED if the forward P/E rises to about 11.9x or above (0.90x the peer median) at unchanged estimates, or if revenue growth falls below 0% year over year. Move to OVERVALUED if the forward P/E rises above about 15.2x (1.15x the peer median) without a matching rise in growth.
Universal Health Services runs hospitals and mental-health facilities. Its shares trade at only about 8 times expected earnings versus about 13 times for similar companies, while its sales grew 8.3%, faster than the group. That large discount on solid growth makes the shares look undervalued.
Both lines start at 100 on 2020-09-01. Over the full window Universal Health Services returned +60.37% and the S&P 500 +118.28% (price returns; dividends not reinvested). Worst peak-to-trough fall for Universal Health Services: -45.3% (2021-08-03 to 2022-09-27). Source: Nasdaq official daily history.
What the label rests on
Forward P/E is 7.69x against a peer median of 13.23x, a ratio of 0.58x — well below the fair range — with trailing P/E 7.53x and PEG 1.09. Latest-quarter revenue grew 8.3% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), above the group pace, so the value-trap check passes: revenue is growing, not shrinking. Delivered demand check: the health care payers, services & facilities group's median growth was 6.2% — demand steady, and Universal Health Services is growing above that pace. The company’s forward P/E is 7.7× against a peer median of 13.2×. Its own history: UNVERIFIED — no sourced range available. Sector demand read: Delivered demand check: the health care payers, services & facilities group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 6.2% year over year (SEC filings) — demand steady. Universal Health Services, at 8.3% growth, is growing above that pace. Latest-quarter sales growth was +8.3% versus a year earlier (SEC filings).
| Company | Price (Oct 28, 2026) | Forward P/E | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Universal Health Services (UHS) | $180.44 | 7.7× | 7.5× |
| DVA | $183.93 | 11.6× | 15.2× |
| SOLV | $82.39 | 12.2× | 10.1× |
| DGX | $249.00 | 21.4× | 24.8× |
| LH | $368.24 | 19.2× | 30.2× |
| CNC | $69.06 | 13.2× | 23.4× |
| Peer median | 13.2× |
Multiples: stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026. Peer set chosen by sector; the median is the middle value of the set. The label and its numbers were recorded in the programme’s label registry on Oct 28, 2026 and will be scored at 6 and 12 months.
Sales, profit and cash
This company does not report a gross-profit line in its SEC facts (normal for banks, payment networks and some health insurers), so profit is shown as net income instead — gross margin is marked UNVERIFIED-absent rather than estimated.
Free cash flow = cash from operations minus spending on plant and equipment, both from the company’s SEC cash-flow statement. Gaps are quarters where that spending line is not separately tagged in the filings — shown as gaps, never estimated.
| Quarter | Sales | Gross margin | Net income | EPS (GAAP, diluted) | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q/E Jun 2026 2026-06-30 | $4.6B | — | $358M | 5.98 | $216M |
| Q/E Mar 2026 2026-03-31 | $4.5B | — | $349M | 5.65 | $184M |
| Q/E Dec 2025 2025-12-31 | $4.5B | — | $446M | — | $293M |
| Q/E Sep 2025 2025-09-30 | $4.5B | — | $373M | 5.86 | $152M |
| Q/E Jun 2025 2025-06-30 | $4.3B | — | $353M | 5.43 | $283M |
| Q/E Mar 2025 2025-03-31 | $4.1B | — | $317M | 4.80 | $121M |
| Q/E Dec 2024 2024-12-31 | $4.1B | — | $332M | — | $412M |
| Q/E Sep 2024 2024-09-30 | $4.0B | — | $259M | 3.80 | $85M |
| Q/E Jun 2024 2024-06-30 | $3.9B | — | $289M | 4.26 | $438M |
| Q/E Mar 2024 2024-03-31 | $3.8B | — | $262M | 3.82 | $188M |
| Q/E Dec 2023 2023-12-31 | $3.7B | — | $216M | — | $246M |
| Q/E Sep 2023 2023-09-30 | $3.6B | — | $167M | 2.40 | $-38M |
The last twelve reported quarters. Full 24-quarter history sits in the data pack behind this page. A dash means the figure is not tagged as a standalone quarter in the company’s SEC facts (the usual case is the fourth quarter, which many companies only report inside the full-year filing) — it is missing, not zero.
Earnings: getting better or worse?
Each box is one quarter’s earnings per share (EPS). Green means EPS was higher than the same quarter a year earlier; red means lower; a dash means the figure is not tagged in the filings.
Basis: GAAP diluted EPS from SEC company facts, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Company (legal name in filings) | UNIVERSAL HEALTH SERVICES INC |
| Chief executive | Marc D. Miller (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Health_Services) |
| Sector | Health Care — Health Care Facilities — runs hospitals and behavioural health facilities |
| Share price (Oct 28, 2026) | $180.44 |
| Market value (market cap) | $10.6B — share price times shares outstanding of 59,910,000 (SEC filings; SEC EDGAR WeightedAverageNumberOfDilutedSharesOutstanding (latest quarter; dei EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding series is stale for this filer)) |
| Sales, last twelve months | $18.1B |
| Net income, last twelve months | $1.5B |
| Free cash flow, last twelve months | $845M |
| Latest reported quarter | Q/E Jun 2026 (of 24 quarters in the data pack) |
| Six-year price return vs S&P 500 | +60.37% vs +118.28% |
| Worst peak-to-trough fall | -45.3% (2021-08-03 to 2022-09-27) |
What we could not verify
- Gross profit / gross margin: not tagged as a standalone line in this company's EDGAR company facts (common for banks, payment networks and some healthcare payers) — shown as UNVERIFIED-absent; the page charts revenue and net income instead.
- TTM GAAP diluted EPS could not be summed from company facts because at least one of the last four quarters (typically Q4) has no standalone tagged EPS; trailing P/E is therefore taken from the labelled secondary source in valuation_label.md.
- Own-history P/E range not yet compiled for this company in the Phase 1 batch run; the label rests on peer-median, growth and PEG evidence.
- Guidance record (each quarter scored against the guidance the company gave the quarter before) is not yet compiled for this company — it is a Phase 2 layer. The earnings strip below therefore uses reported EPS versus a year earlier, which is fully sourced from filings.
The IT factor — the most exciting thing the market is overlooking — is not assessed on an X-Ray page. It belongs to the Deep Dive (Phase 2), where it gets the evidence standard it needs. Leadership-era scoring (the six years split by chief executive) is likewise a Phase 2 layer; this page names the current chief executive only, from a sourced profile.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR submissions — Filing index; company legal name.
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0000352915.json - SEC EDGAR company facts — Quarterly financial spine: revenue, gross profit, net income, GAAP diluted EPS, operating cash flow, PP&E capex, buybacks, dividends, diluted shares.
https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0000352915.json - Nasdaq official daily history — Daily closes for the company; SPY (assetclass=etf) saved as raw/nasdaq_spy_raw.json over identical dates.
https://api.nasdaq.com/api/quote/UHS/historical?assetclass=stocks - Valuation multiples and peer figures — stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026; see valuation_label.md in the data pack.
Conventions: earliest-filed value per period, as first reported; cash-flow years-to-date differenced quarter by quarter; EPS never differenced; free cash flow = operating cash flow minus plant-and-equipment spending. This page is a dated snapshot — updates are new versions, never silent edits.