Investors focused on the Medical space have likely heard of Athersys , but is the stock performing well in comparison to the rest of its sector peers? 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.

Athersys is one of 758 companies in the Medical group. The Medical group currently sits at #5 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 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. ATHX is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ATHX's full-year earnings has moved 12.50% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

According to our latest data, ATHX has moved about 7.73% on a year-to-date basis. Meanwhile, the Medical sector has returned an average of 4.19% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, Athersys is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Looking more specifically, ATHX belongs to the Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry, which includes 280 individual stocks and currently sits at #114 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has lost an average of 3.41% so far this year, meaning that ATHX is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

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