The Medical group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is Anthem one of those stocks right now? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Medical peers, we might be able to answer that question.

Anthem is one of 850 individual stocks in the Medical sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #3 in 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 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. ANTM is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ANTM's full-year earnings has moved 8.85% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.

Our latest available data shows that ANTM has returned about 9.74% since the start of the calendar year. At the same time, Medical stocks have gained an average of 9.70%. As we can see, Anthem is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

To break things down more, ANTM belongs to the Medical - HMOs industry, a group that includes 11 individual companies and currently sits at #55 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 0.52% so far this year, so ANTM is performing better in this area.

Investors with an interest in Medical stocks should continue to track ANTM. The stock will be looking to continue its solid performance.