The most recent trading session ended with Medical Properties (MPW) standing at $6.13, reflecting a -0.65% shift from the previouse trading day's closing. This change was narrower than the S&P 500's 1.12% loss on the day. On the other hand, the Dow registered a loss of 0.31%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq decreased by 2.04%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the health care real estate investment trust had gained 28.27% over the past month. This has outpaced the Finance sector's loss of 0.06% and the S&P 500's loss of 2.91% in that time.

Investors will be eagerly watching for the performance of Medical Properties in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company's earnings per share (EPS) are projected to be $0.15, reflecting a 37.5% decrease from the same quarter last year. Alongside, our most recent consensus estimate is anticipating revenue of $217.7 million, indicating a 19.76% downward movement from the same quarter last year.

For the annual period, the Zacks Consensus Estimates anticipate earnings of $0.62 per share and a revenue of $911.28 million, signifying shifts of -22.5% and -8.46%, respectively, from the last year.

Investors might also notice 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 demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.03% lower within the past month. Medical Properties currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Looking at valuation, Medical Properties is presently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 9.97. This denotes a discount relative to the industry's average Forward P/E of 11.04.

The REIT and Equity Trust - Other industry is part of the Finance sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 139, this industry ranks in the bottom 45% of all industries, numbering over 250.

The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the vigor of our specific industry groups by computing the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks incorporated in the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Don't forget to use Zacks.com to keep track of all these stock-moving metrics, and others, in the upcoming trading sessions.

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Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (MPW) : Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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