The Medical group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is ABIOMED one of those stocks right now? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Medical peers, we might be able to answer that question.

ABIOMED is a member of the Medical sector. This group includes 845 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #3. 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 is a proven model that highlights a variety of stocks with the right characteristics to outperform the market over the next one to three months. The system emphasizes earnings estimate revisions and favors companies with improving earnings outlooks. ABMD is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ABMD's full-year earnings has moved 3.35% 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, ABMD has returned 80.28% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Medical group have gained about 2.99% on average. This means that ABIOMED is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

Breaking things down more, ABMD is a member of the Medical - Instruments industry, which includes 94 individual companies and currently sits at #70 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 15.38% so far this year, so ABMD is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

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