Are Medical Stocks Lagging Elevance Health, Inc. (ELV) This Year?

For those looking to find strong Medical stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Elevance Health (ELV) is a stock that can certainly grab the attention of many investors, but do its recent returns compare favorably to the sector as a whole? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Medical sector should help us answer this question.

Elevance Health is one of 916 individual stocks in the Medical sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #10 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different groups, measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the sector to gauge the strength of each group.

The Zacks Rank emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find stocks with improving earnings outlooks. This system has a long record of success, and these stocks tend to be on track to beat the market over the next one to three months. Elevance Health is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ELV's full-year earnings has moved 1% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

According to our latest data, ELV has moved about 19.1% on a year-to-date basis. At the same time, Medical stocks have gained an average of 1.5%. This means that Elevance Health is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

American Well Corporation (AMWL) is another Medical stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 178.4%.

For American Well Corporation, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 4.5% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Elevance Health belongs to the Medical Services industry, a group that includes 72 individual companies and currently sits at #88 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 3.8% this year, meaning that ELV is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

American Well Corporation, however, belongs to the Medical Info Systems industry. Currently, this 41-stock industry is ranked #76. The industry has moved +11.8% so far this year.

Investors interested in the Medical sector may want to keep a close eye on Elevance Health and American Well Corporation as they attempt to continue their solid performance.

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

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