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Are Medical Stocks Lagging Ascendis Pharma (ASND) This Year?

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The Medical group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Ascendis Pharma A/S (ASND - Free Report) is a stock that can certainly grab the attention of many investors, but do its recent returns compare favorably to the sector as a whole? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Ascendis Pharma A/S is one of 1071 companies in the Medical group. The Medical group currently sits at #5 within the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different groups, measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the sector to gauge the strength of each group.

The Zacks Rank is a successful stock-picking model that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions. The system highlights a number of different stocks that could be poised to outperform the broader market over the next one to three months. Ascendis Pharma A/S is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ASND's full-year earnings has moved 35.4% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Based on the latest available data, ASND has gained about 16.4% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Medical sector has returned an average of 5.5% on a year-to-date basis. This shows that Ascendis Pharma A/S is outperforming its peers so far this year.

Another Medical stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Autolus Therapeutics PLC Sponsored ADR (AUTL - Free Report) . The stock has returned 12.6% year-to-date.

Over the past three months, Autolus Therapeutics PLC Sponsored ADR's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 5%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

To break things down more, Ascendis Pharma A/S belongs to the Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry, a group that includes 520 individual companies and currently sits at #87 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has lost an average of 0% so far this year, so ASND is performing better in this area. Autolus Therapeutics PLC Sponsored ADR is also part of the same industry.

Going forward, investors interested in Medical stocks should continue to pay close attention to Ascendis Pharma A/S and Autolus Therapeutics PLC Sponsored ADR as they could maintain their solid performance.


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