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Is Ligand Pharmaceuticals (LGND) 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. Has Ligand Pharmaceuticals (LGND - Free Report) been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Ligand Pharmaceuticals is a member of our Medical group, which includes 757 different companies and currently sits 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 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. LGND is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for LGND's full-year earnings has moved 32.56% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Based on the latest available data, LGND has gained about 88.78% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Medical group have gained about 6.82% on average. This means that Ligand Pharmaceuticals is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

Looking more specifically, LGND belongs to the Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry, which includes 280 individual stocks and currently sits at #92 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 0.65% this year, meaning that LGND is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

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


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