Medical Properties (MPW) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know
Medical Properties (MPW) closed at $14.36 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.14% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.22% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.13%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.2%.
Coming into today, shares of the health care real estate investment trust had lost 20.91% in the past month. In that same time, the Finance sector lost 7.38%, while the S&P 500 lost 8.32%.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Medical Properties as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect Medical Properties to post earnings of $0.45 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 4.65%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $398.75 million, up 4.44% from the year-ago period.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $1.84 per share and revenue of $1.62 billion, which would represent changes of +5.14% and +4.81%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Medical Properties. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.11% lower. Medical Properties is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).
In terms of valuation, Medical Properties is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 7.78. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 12.25.
Investors should also note that MPW has a PEG ratio of 0.78 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The REIT and Equity Trust - Other was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.19 at yesterday's closing price.
The REIT and Equity Trust - Other industry is part of the Finance sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 146, putting it in the bottom 43% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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