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Is West Pharmaceutical Services (WST) Outperforming Other Medical Stocks This Year?

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Investors focused on the Medical space have likely heard of West Pharmaceutical Services (WST - Free Report) , but is the stock performing well in comparison to the rest of its sector peers? One simple way to answer this question is to take a look at the year-to-date performance of WST and the rest of the Medical group's stocks.

West Pharmaceutical Services is one of 927 companies in the Medical group. The Medical group currently sits at #12 within the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank includes 16 different groups and is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors.

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

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for WST's full-year earnings has moved 6.37% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

Our latest available data shows that WST has returned about 79.07% since the start of the calendar year. At the same time, Medical stocks have gained an average of 1.17%. This shows that West Pharmaceutical Services is outperforming its peers so far this year.

Looking more specifically, WST belongs to the Medical - Dental Supplies industry, which includes 22 individual stocks and currently sits at #53 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 11.53% so far this year, so WST is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

WST 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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