2 Highly Ranked Medical Stocks to Consider After Healthy Quarterly Results

SRDX LGND XLV

Although many healthcare stocks have moved lower in recent weeks with the XLV Health Care Select Sector ETF hovering near 52-week lows, several Zacks Medical sector stocks are highlighting this week’s earnings lineup.

After impressive quarterly results on Wednesday, here are two highly-ranked Zacks Medical sector stocks that investors may want to consider.

Ligand Pharmaceuticals LGND: Sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Ligand Pharmaceuticals’ stock looks poised for a rebound after easily surpassing third quarter top and bottom line expectations.

Ligand is focused on the development and licensing of biopharmaceutical assets primarily through its Captisol formulation technology which is a chemically modified cyclodextrin that improves the safety and ingestion of drugs.

Trading near its 52-week lows Ligand’s stock popped +4% today and looks poised for a sharp rebound as Q3 earnings of $1.02 per share crushed the Zacks Consensus of $0.68 a share by 50%.

More impressive, Q3 earnings soared 149% from $0.41 a share in the prior-year quarter. Third quarter sales of $32.87 million fell from $66.09 million a year ago but topped estimates by 5% with Ligand’s business model of acquiring royalty revenue able to thrive due to the company’s low operating costs. To that point, Ligand has now surpassed earnings expectations for four consecutive quarters posting a very impressive average earnings surprise of 67%.

Surmodics SRDX: Also boasting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) is Surmodics which is a leading provider of medical devices and In Vitro Diagnostics (IVD) to the healthcare industry.

Surmodics reported its fiscal fourth quarter results on Wednesday with earnings of $0.53 per share reassuringly surpassing estimates of $0.16 a share by 231%. Fourth quarter sales of $27.97 million came in 7% better than expected.

Further illustrating the excitement surrounding Surmodics' earnings potential is that Q4 EPS skyrocketed from an adjusted loss of -$0.26 a share in the prior year quarter with sales up 7% YoY.

Notably, Surmodics stock is 20% from its 52-week highs and the dip has become more appealing considering the company has surpassed earnings expectations for 9 consecutive quarters.

Takeaway

The recent dip among healthcare stocks may start to attract more investors with Ligand Pharmaceuticals and Surmodics being two companies to consider. The outlook for both of these highly-ranked Zacks Medical sector stocks has started to brighten after continuing their streaks of surpassing quarterly earnings expectations.

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