HCA Healthcare Inc (HCA) is undervalued and Universal Health Services Inc (UHS) is undervalued.
Against our estimates of intrinsic value, UHS trades at the wider discount: a margin of safety of +62%, against +35% for HCA.
Values as of the 22 Sept 2026 close.
Discounting its cash flows at 8.7% (average of 3 methods) values the shares at $669.90; the price of $438.12 is 35% below that value, and 77% of that value comes from beyond year five.
Leak Score 100/100 on 7 of 12 signals
Discounting its cash flows at 8.5% (average of 3 methods) values the shares at $471.63; the price of $179.29 is 62% below that value, and 78% of that value comes from beyond year five.
Leak Score 100/100 on 3 of 12 signals
| Metric | HCA | UHS |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Undervalued | Undervalued |
| Price | $438.12 | $179.29 |
| Intrinsic value | $669.90 | $471.63 |
| Margin of safety | +35% | +62% |
| Leak Score | 100/100 (7/12) | 100/100 (3/12) |
| Market cap | $94.9B | $10.6B |
| Revenue growth, 5 years | 8.0% | 8.5% |
| Operating margin | 15.5% | 11.4% |
| Net margin | 8.8% | 8.4% |
| Return on equity | — | 21.0% |
| Debt to equity | — | 0.70 |
| P/E | 14.7x | 7.3x |
| Forward P/E | 13.7x | 7.5x |
| P/B | — | 1.4x |
| Dividend yield | 0.6% | 0.5% |