Top Healthcare Stocks To Watch Today – May 21st

UnitedHealth Group, Alphabet, and Palo Alto Networks are the three Healthcare stocks to watch today, according to MarketBeat’s stock screener tool. Healthcare stocks are shares of companies involved in the research, development, production and distribution of medical goods and services—such as pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices and healthcare providers. Because demand for medical care and treatments tends to remain relatively stable regardless of economic cycles, these stocks often exhibit defensive portfolio characteristics. These companies had the highest dollar trading volume of any Healthcare stocks within the last several days.

UnitedHealth Group (UNH)

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated operates as a diversified health care company in the United States. The company operates through four segments: UnitedHealthcare, Optum Health, Optum Insight, and Optum Rx. The UnitedHealthcare segment offers consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services for national employers, public sector employers, mid-sized employers, small businesses, and individuals; health care coverage, and health and well-being services to individuals age 50 and older addressing their needs; Medicaid plans, children's health insurance and health care programs; and health and dental benefits, and hospital and clinical services, as well as health care benefits products and services to state programs caring for the economically disadvantaged, medically underserved, and those without the benefit of employer-funded health care coverage.

NYSE UNH traded down $14.25 on Wednesday, reaching $307.34. 28,241,461 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,348,310. The company has a market cap of $278.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.56. UnitedHealth Group has a 12 month low of $248.88 and a 12 month high of $630.73. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $464.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $510.17. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74.

Alphabet (GOOGL)

Alphabet Inc. offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.

GOOGL traded up $6.91 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $170.89. The company had a trading volume of 46,324,288 shares, compared to its average volume of 29,258,529. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $158.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $174.93. The company has a market cap of $2.07 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.27, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.01. Alphabet has a 12-month low of $140.53 and a 12-month high of $207.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Palo Alto Networks (PANW)

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. provides cybersecurity solutions worldwide. The company offers firewall appliances and software; and Panorama, a security management solution for the global control of network security platform as a virtual or a physical appliance. It also provides subscription services covering the areas of threat prevention, malware and persistent threat, URL filtering, laptop and mobile device protection, DNS security, Internet of Things security, SaaS security API, and SaaS security inline, as well as threat intelligence, and data loss prevention.

PANW traded down $9.43 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $185.06. The company had a trading volume of 12,123,584 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,706,820. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $178.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $185.32. The company has a market cap of $122.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 104.11, a PEG ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 1.02. Palo Alto Networks has a 12-month low of $142.01 and a 12-month high of $208.39.