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Is UnitedHealth Group (UNH) Outperforming Other Medical Stocks This Year?

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For those looking to find strong Medical stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Is UnitedHealth Group (UNH - Free Report) one of those stocks right now? 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.

UnitedHealth Group is one of 763 individual stocks in the Medical sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #12 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. UNH is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for UNH's full-year earnings has moved 0.79% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

According to our latest data, UNH has moved about 12.94% on a year-to-date basis. At the same time, Medical stocks have gained an average of 0.79%. As we can see, UnitedHealth Group is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

To break things down more, UNH belongs to the Medical - HMOs industry, a group that includes 13 individual companies and currently sits at #32 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 10.04% this year, meaning that UNH is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

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


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