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Is Anthem (ANTM) 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. Is Anthem 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.

Anthem is a member of our Medical group, which includes 841 different companies and currently sits at #2 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different sector groups. The average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups is measured, and the sectors are listed from best to worst.

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

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ANTM's full-year earnings has moved 1.14% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

According to our latest data, ANTM has moved about 24.67% on a year-to-date basis. At the same time, Medical stocks have gained an average of 1.12%. This means that Anthem is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

To break things down more, ANTM belongs to the Medical - HMOs industry, a group that includes 12 individual companies and currently sits at #88 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 23.02% so far this year, so ANTM is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

ANTM will likely be looking to continue its solid performance, so investors interested in Medical stocks should continue to pay close attention to the company.

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