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Are Medical Stocks Lagging Alkermes (ALKS) This Year?

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For those looking to find strong Medical stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Is Alkermes (ALKS - Free Report) one of those stocks right now? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Alkermes is a member of our Medical group, which includes 1119 different companies and currently sits at #5 in 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 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. Alkermes is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ALKS' full-year earnings has moved 185.9% higher within the past quarter. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the latest available data, ALKS has gained about 14.7% so far this year. At the same time, Medical stocks have lost an average of 3.9%. This shows that Alkermes is outperforming its peers so far this year.

Haemonetics (HAE - Free Report) is another Medical stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 9%.

In Haemonetics' case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 8.1% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Looking more specifically, Alkermes belongs to the Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry, a group that includes 537 individual stocks and currently sits at #101 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has lost an average of 9.4% so far this year, meaning that ALKS is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, Haemonetics falls under the Medical - Products industry. Currently, this industry has 99 stocks and is ranked #85. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +5.1%.

Going forward, investors interested in Medical stocks should continue to pay close attention to Alkermes and Haemonetics as they could maintain their solid performance.


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