Has Acadia Healthcare (ACHC) Outpaced Other Medical Stocks This Year?

ACHC OPHLF

The Medical group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Has Acadia Healthcare (ACHC - Free Report) been one of those stocks this year? 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.

Acadia Healthcare is one of 1186 individual stocks in the Medical sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #9 in 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 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. Acadia Healthcare is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ACHC's full-year earnings has moved 2% higher within the past quarter. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

According to our latest data, ACHC has moved about 10.2% on a year-to-date basis. At the same time, Medical stocks have lost an average of 11.7%. This means that Acadia Healthcare is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

Another Medical stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Ono Pharmaceutical Co. (OPHLF - Free Report) . The stock has returned 3.5% year-to-date.

Over the past three months, Ono Pharmaceutical Co.'s consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 10.9%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Looking more specifically, Acadia Healthcare belongs to the Medical - Hospital industry, a group that includes 6 individual stocks and currently sits at #213 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have lost 16.6% this year, meaning that ACHC is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, Ono Pharmaceutical Co. falls under the Medical - Drugs industry. Currently, this industry has 231 stocks and is ranked #96. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved -21.8%.

Going forward, investors interested in Medical stocks should continue to pay close attention to Acadia Healthcare and Ono Pharmaceutical Co. as they could maintain their solid performance.

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