Universal Health Services, Inc., through its subsidiaries, owns and operates acute care hospitals, and outpatient and behavioral health care facilities in the United States. It operates through Acute Care Hospital Services and Behavioral Health Care Services segments. The company's hospitals offer general and specialty surgery, internal medicine, obstetrics, emergency room care, radiology, oncology, diagnostic and coronary care, pediatric, pharmacy, and/or …
Full UHS analysis →
Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
Margins Consistently Above PeersGross margin at 90.4% (top 6%) and operating margin at 11.5% (top 22%) indicate strong pricing power.
Margins Stable Across CyclesOperating margin volatility is low (stability score 0.82), demonstrating pricing resilience across cycles.
The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks
against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.
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Universal Health Services, Inc. ranks #6 of 58
scored companies in Medical Care Facilities by moat score — the top 10%.
The widest moat in the group is Encompass Health Corporation (EHC)
at 77/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near UHS in Medical Care Facilities
Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.
Cost Advantage
Score 50
· 15% of the moat score
A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.
Customer Stickiness
Score 78
· 15% of the moat score
Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.
Capital Efficiency
Score 76
· 18% of the moat score
Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.
Resilience
Score 58
· 17% of the moat score
Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.
Scale & Market Position
Score 77
· 15% of the moat score
Scale matters only when it converts into economics.
What is Universal Health Services, Inc.'s moat score?
Universal Health Services, Inc. (UHS) scores 71 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #6 of 58 scored companies in Medical Care Facilities, the top 10%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 57 companies in Medical Care Facilities. Its strongest defense is Pricing Power (84/100) and its weakest is Cost Advantage (50/100).
How does Universal Health Services, Inc. compare with other Medical Care Facilities companies?
Universal Health Services, Inc. ranks #6 of 58 scored companies in Medical Care Facilities by moat score. The widest moat in Medical Care Facilities is Encompass Health Corporation (EHC) at 77/100. The companies ranked closest are National HealthCare Corporation (NHC) at 73 just above it and Concentra Group Holdings Parent (CON) at 70 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 57 companies in Medical Care Facilities. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is Universal Health Services, Inc. scored with the Corporate Default template?
Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.
Which competitive defenses are measured for Universal Health Services, Inc.?
The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and UHS scores: Pricing Power (84), Cost Advantage (50), Customer Stickiness (78), Capital Efficiency (76), Resilience (58), Scale & Market Position (77). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.
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