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Is West Pharmaceutical Services (WST) Stock Outpacing Its Medical Peers This Year?

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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. West Pharmaceutical Services (WST - Free Report) 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? One simple way to answer this question is to take a look at the year-to-date performance of WST and the rest of the Medical group's stocks.

West Pharmaceutical Services is a member of our Medical group, which includes 903 different companies and currently sits at #6 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 successful stock-picking model that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions. The system highlights a number of different stocks that could be poised to outperform the broader market over the next one to three months. WST is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for WST's full-year earnings has moved 5.12% higher within the past quarter. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Based on the most recent data, WST has returned 64.27% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Medical group have gained about 3.26% on average. This means that West Pharmaceutical Services is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

Breaking things down more, WST is a member of the Medical - Dental Supplies industry, which includes 21 individual companies and currently sits at #185 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 8.02% so far this year, so WST is performing better in this area.

Going forward, investors interested in Medical stocks should continue to pay close attention to WST as it looks to continue its solid performance.


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