Universal Health Services Stock: Is UHS Outperforming the Healthcare Sector?

Aditya Sarawgi

Tue, Jun 24, 2025, 1:24 AM 2 min read

Pennsylvania-based Universal Health Services, Inc. (UHS) owns and operates acute care hospitals, behavioral health centers, surgical hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, and radiation oncology centers. With a market cap of $11.2 billion, Universal Health operates through Acute Care Hospital Services and Behavioral Health Care Services segments.

Companies worth $10 billion or more are generally described as “large-cap stocks.” Universal Health fits right into that category, with its market cap exceeding this threshold, reflecting its substantial size, influence, and dominance in the medical care facilities industry. Along with above mentioned services, it also provides commercial health insurance and various management services.

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UHS touched its all-time high of $243.25 on Sep. 24, 2024, and is currently trading 28.7% below that peak. Over the past three months, UHS stock has dropped by a marginal 36 bps, outperforming the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund’s (XLV) 9.9% decline during the same time frame.

UHS has performed slightly better than the broader healthcare sector over the longer term as well. UHS stock has dropped 3.3% on a YTD basis and 8.2% over the past 52 weeks, compared to XLV’s 3.9% decline in 2025 and 10% plunge over the past year.

UHS has traded consistently below its 200-day moving average since early December 2024 and below its 50-day moving average since earlier this month.

Universal Health Services’ stock prices observed a marginal dip in the trading session after the release of its mixed Q1 results on Apr. 28. While the company’s Acute Care segment’s performance remained robust, the Behavioral Health Care segment’s performance remained lackluster. In its Acute Care segment, UHS reported a 2.4% year-over-year increase in adjusted admissions and a 2.5% increase in net revenue per adjusted admission. Although the Behavioural segment’s net revenue per adjusted admission increased by 7.2%, its admissions themselves dropped by 1.6%. This led to a 6.7% year-over-year growth in overall revenues to $4.1 billion, which missed the Street’s expectations by 1.1%.

However, driven by favorable pricing and margin improvement, the company’s adjusted EPS surged 30.8% year-over-year to $4.84, surpassing the consensus estimates by 11%.