For those looking to find strong Medical stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Has Alder BioPharmaceuticals been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Alder BioPharmaceuticals is a member of the Medical sector. This group includes 757 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #6. The Zacks Sector Rank gauges the strength of our 16 individual sector groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups.

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. ALDR is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ALDR's full-year earnings has moved 0.20% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Based on the most recent data, ALDR has returned 63.32% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Medical sector has returned an average of 5.94% on a year-to-date basis. This shows that Alder BioPharmaceuticals is outperforming its peers so far this year.

Looking more specifically, ALDR belongs to the Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry, a group that includes 280 individual stocks and currently sits at #99 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have lost 2.50% this year, meaning that ALDR is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

Investors in the Medical sector will want to keep a close eye on ALDR as it attempts to continue its solid performance.