Promising Healthcare Stocks Worth Watching – March 9th

Alphabet, UnitedHealth Group, Salesforce, Merck & Co., Inc., and ServiceNow are the five Healthcare stocks to watch today, according to MarketBeat’s stock screener tool. Healthcare stocks are shares of companies involved in providing medical services, manufacturing medical equipment or drugs, and researching biotechnology innovations. They tend to be considered defensive investments since the demand for healthcare products and services often remains steady regardless of economic cycles. These companies had the highest dollar trading volume of any Healthcare stocks within the last several days.

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.

NASDAQ GOOGL traded up $1.51 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $173.86. 27,359,201 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 29,604,490. The stock has a market cap of $2.12 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.02. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $188.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $176.47. Alphabet has a 52 week low of $134.00 and a 52 week high of $207.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

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.

Shares of UNH traded up $5.63 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $493.35. 5,431,753 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,011,298. UnitedHealth Group has a 12 month low of $436.38 and a 12 month high of $630.73. The stock has a market cap of $451.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.62. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $513.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is $553.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

Salesforce (CRM)

Salesforce, Inc. provides Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology that brings companies and customers together worldwide. The company's service includes sales to store data, monitor leads and progress, forecast opportunities, gain insights through analytics and artificial intelligence, and deliver quotes, contracts, and invoices; and service that enables companies to deliver trusted and highly personalized customer support at scale.

NYSE:CRM traded down $3.32 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $282.74. The stock had a trading volume of 8,245,079 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,985,041. Salesforce has a one year low of $212.00 and a one year high of $369.00. The company has a market capitalization of $270.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.50, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.35. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $323.68 and a 200 day moving average of $308.50. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK)

Merck & Co., Inc. is a health care company, which engages in the provision of health solutions through its prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, animal health, and consumer care products. It operates through the following segments: Pharmaceutical, Animal Health, and Other. The Pharmaceutical segment includes human health pharmaceutical and vaccine products.

NYSE:MRK traded up $0.71 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $94.71. The stock had a trading volume of 24,097,509 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,021,653. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $94.03 and a 200 day moving average of $102.65. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The company has a market capitalization of $239.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.07, a PEG ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 0.35. Merck & Co., Inc. has a one year low of $81.04 and a one year high of $134.63.

ServiceNow (NOW)

ServiceNow, Inc. provides end to-end intelligent workflow automation platform solutions for digital businesses in the North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company operates the Now platform for end-to-end digital transformation, artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotic process automation, process mining, performance analytics, and collaboration and development tools.

ServiceNow stock traded down $16.56 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $850.54. 2,527,596 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,705,930. The business has a fifty day moving average of $1,017.44 and a 200 day moving average of $984.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.10. The firm has a market cap of $175.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 124.53, a PEG ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 1.03. ServiceNow has a 12-month low of $637.99 and a 12-month high of $1,198.09.