Universal Health Services is engaged principally in owning and operating acute care hospitals, behavioral healthcenters, ambulatory surgery centers and radiation oncology centers. For the nine months ended 9/30/00, revenues rose 7% to $1.63B. Net income rose 16% to $74.3M. Revenues reflect 17 new facilities and growth at acute care and behavioral care facilities. Net income reflects lower depreciation expenses as a percentage of sales.

February 1, 2001

UHS owns and operates acute care hospitals, behavioral health centers, ambulatory surgery centers, radiation oncology centers and women's centers. We welcome UHS to our Current Plays list as its latest quarterly earnings date approaches. The company has beaten its earnings expectations for the last four quarters, which may be one reason ING Baring recently upgraded the stock from a “hold” to a “buy” rating. Currently, the company has 29.8 million shares outstanding and 50 million shares authorized. UHS’s only split recorded is a 2:1 back in 1996 when the stock was trading at $56.00. Since Mid-December, the stock has retraced about 35 points since and now looks poised to move higher. The technical perspective looks like this: UHS now has support at the 10-dma at $81.02 and the 200-dma at $75.48. Resistance is at the 5-dma at $82.05 and the 20-dma at $84.31. Consider opening a new position if UHS bounces off support at $81.00, or make an aggressive move through resistance on volume exceeding 400,000 shares by midday. The stock seems to have found a base over the last 10 trading sessions and we are optimistic that the upcoming earnings announcement will have a bullish effect on the stock's performance. We will protect ourselves with a stop loss at $75.25 below.

Picked on February 1st at $81.99
Change since picked 0.00
Stop Loss at $75.25