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Is Elevance Health, Inc. (ELV) Stock Outpacing Its Medical Peers 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. Has Elevance Health (ELV - 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.

Elevance Health is a member of the Medical sector. This group includes 1069 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #6. 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 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. Elevance Health is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ELV's full-year earnings has moved 0.3% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

Our latest available data shows that ELV has returned about 8.7% since the start of the calendar year. At the same time, Medical stocks have gained an average of 6.8%. This means that Elevance Health is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

HCA Healthcare (HCA - 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 14%.

In HCA Healthcare's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 4.7% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Looking more specifically, Elevance Health belongs to the Medical Services industry, a group that includes 59 individual stocks and currently sits at #93 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 5.2% this year, meaning that ELV is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

In contrast, HCA Healthcare falls under the Medical - Hospital industry. Currently, this industry has 5 stocks and is ranked #33. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +13.2%.

Elevance Health and HCA Healthcare could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Medical stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.


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