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Are Medical Stocks Lagging Akebia Therapeutics (AKBA) This Year?

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Investors interested in Medical stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Is Akebia Therapeutics (AKBA - 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.

Akebia Therapeutics is one of 951 companies in the Medical group. The Medical group currently sits at #5 within 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 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. Akebia Therapeutics is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AKBA's full-year earnings has moved 201.6% higher within the past quarter. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

According to our latest data, AKBA has moved about 16.3% on a year-to-date basis. Meanwhile, stocks in the Medical group have gained about 4.5% on average. This means that Akebia Therapeutics is outperforming the sector as a whole this year.

One other Medical stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Humana (HUM - Free Report) . The stock is up 9.7% year-to-date.

The consensus estimate for Humana's current year EPS has increased 0.5% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Akebia Therapeutics belongs to the Medical - Drugs industry, a group that includes 144 individual stocks and currently sits at #86 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 7.6% so far this year, so AKBA is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

On the other hand, Humana belongs to the Medical - HMOs industry. This 8-stock industry is currently ranked #180. The industry has moved -28.4% year to date.

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


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