Has UnitedHealth Group (UNH) Outpaced Other Medical Stocks This Year?

UNH

The Medical group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Has UnitedHealth Group (UNH - 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.

UnitedHealth Group is a member of the Medical sector. This group includes 756 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #7. The Zacks Sector Rank gauges the strength of our 16 individual sector groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups.

The Zacks Rank is a proven system that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions, highlighting a variety of stocks that are displaying the right characteristics to beat the market over the next one to three months. UNH is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for UNH's full-year earnings has moved 0.84% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Our latest available data shows that UNH has returned about 21.27% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Medical group have gained about 10.94% on average. This means that UnitedHealth Group is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

Looking more specifically, UNH belongs to the Medical - HMOs industry, a group that includes 13 individual stocks and currently sits at #43 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 23.36% so far this year, so UNH is slightly underperforming its industry this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

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

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