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Is HCA Healthcare (HCA) Stock Outpacing Its Medical Peers 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 HCA Healthcare (HCA - 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.

HCA Healthcare is a member of our Medical group, which includes 1073 different companies and currently sits at #8 in the Zacks Sector Rank. 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 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. HCA Healthcare is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

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

Our latest available data shows that HCA has returned about 12.6% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Medical sector has returned an average of 2.7% on a year-to-date basis. As we can see, HCA Healthcare is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Another Medical stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is HealthEquity (HQY - Free Report) . The stock has returned 14% year-to-date.

For HealthEquity, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 9.6% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, HCA Healthcare belongs to the Medical - Hospital industry, a group that includes 5 individual companies and currently sits at #34 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 11% this year, meaning that HCA is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, HealthEquity falls under the Medical Services industry. Currently, this industry has 60 stocks and is ranked #180. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +1%.

Investors with an interest in Medical stocks should continue to track HCA Healthcare and HealthEquity. These stocks will be looking to continue their solid performance.


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