Record P/E gap leads UBS into health care over utilities

Investors have more reason than ever before to play defense in health-care stocks rather than utilities, according to UBS Group AG. Strategists at the firm compared the industry groups’ forward price-earnings ratios, based on profit projections, in a report Monday. The S&P 500 Health Care Index’s forward P/E dropped as much as 29% below the ratio for the S&P 500 Utilities Index during October, according to data compiled by Bloomberg that goes back to 1990. The discount was the biggest on record.