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The Medical group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Has Bayer Aktiengesellschaft (BAYRY) been one of those stocks this year? 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.
Bayer Aktiengesellschaft is one of 1012 individual stocks in the Medical sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #4 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank includes 16 different groups and is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors.
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. Bayer Aktiengesellschaft is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for BAYRY's full-year earnings has moved 0.6% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.
Based on the latest available data, BAYRY has gained about 37.5% so far this year. At the same time, Medical stocks have gained an average of 6.8%. This means that Bayer Aktiengesellschaft is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.
Another Medical stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is AbbVie (ABBV). The stock has returned 18.6% year-to-date.
Over the past three months, AbbVie's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 1%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Breaking things down more, Bayer Aktiengesellschaft is a member of the Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry, which includes 12 individual companies and currently sits at #60 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 11.9% so far this year, so BAYRY is performing better in this area. AbbVie is also part of the same industry.
Going forward, investors interested in Medical stocks should continue to pay close attention to Bayer Aktiengesellschaft and AbbVie as they could maintain their solid performance.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).