Universal Health Services (UHS)
Health Care · $10.5B market cap · SEC CIK 0000352915
fundamentals score out of 100
Next reports on Oct 26, 2026, after the close, with analysts expecting $5.24 in earnings per share.
The case for UHS
- Cheap on earnings at 6.9×, well under the market's usual 20×.
- Free cash flow of 8.1% of its market value a year: a lot of cash for the price.
- Revenue growing 10.1% year over year.
- Earnings per share up 29.4%.
- A PEG of 0.24: a P/E of 6.9× is low for EPS growing 29%.
- Trades at 1.20× book value, close to what the balance sheet says it owns.
The case against
- Long-term debt of $4.0B against $138M of cash.
- Weakest against its peers: net margin of 8% is thinner than 59% of Health Care companies.
What the score is made of
Each factor is half a curve over reported figures and half a rank among the other Health Care companies (momentum is judged against fixed thresholds only), and the five are blended by weight. It describes the last filing and the current price. It is not a forecast.
| Valuewhat you pay for the earnings, sales, assets and cash | 92 |
|---|---|
| Growthhow fast revenue and earnings are moving, this year and over five | 68 |
| Profitabilityhow much of the revenue becomes profit, and how much of that is cash | 49 |
| Momentumhow the price has behaved lately | 54 |
| Stabilityhow violently it moves, what it owes and what it pays you | 45 |
- Each factor except momentum is half fixed thresholds, half rank among the 59 Health Care companies.
Key numbers
| Price / earnings | 6.9× |
|---|---|
| Price / book | 1.20× |
| Price / sales | 0.6× |
| Revenue growth (YoY) | +10.1% |
| EPS growth (YoY) | +29.4% |
| Gross margin | — |
| Operating margin | 11% |
| Net margin | 8% |
| Return on equity | 21% |
| Debt / equity | 0.65× |
| Current ratio | 1.12 |
| Dividend yield | 0.58% |
| Beta | 1.13 |
| 52-week range | $140.08 – $246.33 |
| Position in that range | 37% of the way up |
| 3-month return | +23.8% |
| 1-year return | -7.4% |
Five years of financials, as filed
Pulled from Universal Health Services's XBRL filings on SEC EDGAR. Italic rows are derived from the rows above.
| FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | FY2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $17.4B | $15.8B | $14.3B | $13.4B | $12.6B |
| Operating income | $2.0B | $1.7B | $1.2B | $1.0B | $1.4B |
| Net income | $1.5B | $1.1B | $718M | $676M | $992M |
| Operating cash flow | $1.9B | $2.1B | $1.3B | $996M | $884M |
| Capital expenditure | $1.0B | $944M | $743M | $734M | $856M |
| Total assets | $15.5B | $14.5B | $14.0B | $13.5B | $13.1B |
| Shareholder equity | $7.3B | $6.7B | $6.1B | $5.9B | $6.1B |
| Cash | $138M | $126M | $119M | $103M | $115M |
| Long-term debt | $4.0B | $4.5B | $4.8B | $4.7B | $4.1B |
| Free cash flow | $849M | $1.1B | $525M | $262M | $28.0M |
| Operating margin | 11.5% | 10.6% | 8.2% | 7.5% | 10.8% |
| Net margin | 8.6% | 7.2% | 5.0% | 5.0% | 7.8% |
| Diluted shares | 64.5M | 67.9M | 70.1M | 73.8M | 83.7M |
Share count is down 23.0% over 4 years. Buybacks have been shrinking the pie.
What Universal Health Services says it does
—Self-Referral and Anti-Kickback Legislation . If we are deemed to have failed to comply with the anti-kickback statute, the Stark Law or other applicable laws and regulations, we could be subjected to liabilities, including criminal penalties, civil penalties (including the loss of our licenses to operate one or more facilities), and exclusion of one or more facilities from participation in the Medicare, Medicaid and other federal and state healthcare programs. The imposition of such penalties could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. We also operate health care facilities in the United Kingdom and have operations and commercial relationships with companies in other foreign jurisdictions and, as a result, are subject to certain U.S. and foreign laws applicable to businesses generally, including anti-corruption laws. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act regulates U.S. companies in…
Risk factors UHS lists in its 10-K
- Acute care facilities located in the U.S.
- Behavioral health care facilities (346 inpatient facilities and 119 outpatient facilities)
- Sources of Revenues and Health Care Reform
- Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce
- Chevron v. National Resources Defense Council
- Note 8 to the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements - Commitments and Contingencies,
- Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
- Note 1 to the Consolidated Financial Statements
- Patient services provided in the U.S.
- Behavioral health care services provided in the U.K.
- Commercial health insurer - certain acute care markets
- Note 10 to the Consolidated Financial Statements-Revenue Recognition
- Charity Care, Uninsured Discounts and Other Adjustments to Revenue
- Uncompensated care (charity care and uninsured discounts)