The Medical group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Agilon Health (AGL) 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.
Agilon Health is one of 888 companies in the Medical group. The Medical group currently sits at #6 within 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 is a proven system that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions, highlighting a variety of stocks that are displaying the right characteristics to beat the market over the next one to three months. Agilon Health is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AGL's full-year earnings has moved 47.5% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.
Our latest available data shows that AGL has returned about 215% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Medical sector has returned an average of -8.2% on a year-to-date basis. This shows that Agilon Health is outperforming its peers so far this year.
One other Medical stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Amarin (AMRN). The stock is up 7.9% year-to-date.
The consensus estimate for Amarin's current year EPS has increased 12.1% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
To break things down more, Agilon Health belongs to the Medical Services industry, a group that includes 63 individual companies and currently sits at #98 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have lost about 11% so far this year, so AGL is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.
In contrast, Amarin falls under the Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry. Currently, this industry has 432 stocks and is ranked #142. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved -1.8%.
Going forward, investors interested in Medical stocks should continue to pay close attention to Agilon Health and Amarin as they could maintain their solid performance.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).