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Has HCA Healthcare (HCA) Outpaced Other Medical Stocks 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. Has HCA Healthcare (HCA - 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.

HCA Healthcare is one of 756 individual stocks in the Medical sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #5 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 emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find stocks with improving earnings outlooks. This system has a long record of success, and these stocks tend to be on track to beat the market over the next one to three months. HCA is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for HCA's full-year earnings has moved 4.61% higher within the past quarter. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

Our latest available data shows that HCA has returned about 53.14% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, the Medical sector has returned an average of 10.97% on a year-to-date basis. This shows that HCA Healthcare is outperforming its peers so far this year.

Looking more specifically, HCA belongs to the Medical - Hospital industry, which includes 8 individual stocks and currently sits at #78 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 35.54% so far this year, so HCA is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

Investors in the Medical sector will want to keep a close eye on HCA as it attempts to continue its solid performance.


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