UnitedHealth Group (UNH) Competitors

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) and Elevance Health (NYSE:ELV) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, community ranking, profitability, risk, valuation, institutional ownership and dividends.

Which has better earnings & valuation, UNH or ELV?

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.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
UnitedHealth Group	$400.28B	1.20	$14.41B	$15.50	33.78
Elevance Health	$176.81B	0.55	$5.98B	$25.61	16.77

Is UNH or ELV more profitable?

UnitedHealth Group has a net margin of 3.60% compared to Elevance Health's net margin of 3.38%. UnitedHealth Group's return on equity of 26.69% beat Elevance Health's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
UnitedHealth Group	3.60%	26.69%	8.80%
Elevance Health	3.38%	18.28%	6.72%

Do institutionals and insiders have more ownership in UNH or ELV?

87.9% of UnitedHealth Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.2% of Elevance Health shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of UnitedHealth Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Elevance Health shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is UNH or ELV a better dividend stock?

UnitedHealth Group pays an annual dividend of $8.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Elevance Health pays an annual dividend of $6.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. UnitedHealth Group pays out 54.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Elevance Health pays out 26.7% 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 has raised its dividend for 15 consecutive years and Elevance Health has raised its dividend for 14 consecutive years. UnitedHealth Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Do analysts rate UNH or ELV?

UnitedHealth Group currently has a consensus target price of $629.32, indicating a potential upside of 20.19%. Elevance Health has a consensus target price of $519.81, indicating a potential upside of 21.07%. Given Elevance Health's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Elevance Health is more favorable than UnitedHealth Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
UnitedHealth Group	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	19 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.10
Elevance Health	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	14 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.94

Which has more risk and volatility, UNH or ELV?

UnitedHealth Group has a beta of 0.62, meaning that its share price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Elevance Health has a beta of 0.77, meaning that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer UNH or ELV?

UnitedHealth Group received 852 more outperform votes than Elevance Health when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 80.57% of users gave UnitedHealth Group an outperform vote while only 67.21% of users gave Elevance Health an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
UnitedHealth Group	Outperform Votes 1725 80.57%	Underperform Votes 416 19.43%
Elevance Health	Outperform Votes 873 67.21%	Underperform Votes 426 32.79%

Does the media favor UNH or ELV?

In the previous week, UnitedHealth Group had 35 more articles in the media than Elevance Health. MarketBeat recorded 88 mentions for UnitedHealth Group and 53 mentions for Elevance Health. Elevance Health's average media sentiment score of 1.57 beat UnitedHealth Group's score of 1.34 indicating that Elevance Health is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
UnitedHealth Group	71 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	9 Neutral mention(s)	5 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Elevance Health	47 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Summary

UnitedHealth Group beats Elevance Health on 15 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.