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Medical Properties (MPW) Stock Moves -0.73%: What You Should Know

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Medical Properties (MPW - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $13.69, moving -0.73% from the previous trading session. This change was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.13%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.56%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.16%.

Coming into today, shares of the health care real estate investment trust had lost 16.42% in the past month. In that same time, the Finance sector lost 6.7%, while the S&P 500 lost 7.59%.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Medical Properties as it approaches its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect Medical Properties to post earnings of $0.45 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 2.27%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $393.37 million, up 0.66% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $1.82 per share and revenue of $1.6 billion. These totals would mark changes of +4% and +3.4%, respectively, from last year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Medical Properties. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about 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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.18% higher. Medical Properties is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Medical Properties has a Forward P/E ratio of 7.59 right now. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 12.69.

Also, we should mention that MPW has a PEG ratio of 0.76. 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. REIT and Equity Trust - Other stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.15 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The REIT and Equity Trust - Other industry is part of the Finance sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 74, which puts it in the top 30% 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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