For those looking to find strong Medical stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Gilead Sciences (GILD) 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.

Gilead Sciences is a member of our Medical group, which includes 1012 different companies and currently sits at #4 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 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. Gilead Sciences is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for GILD's full-year earnings has moved 6.7% 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, GILD has moved about 27.1% on a year-to-date basis. At the same time, Medical stocks have gained an average of 6.8%. As we can see, Gilead Sciences is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

One other Medical stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is ANIXA BIOSCIENCES INC (ANIX). The stock is up 22.4% year-to-date.

For ANIXA BIOSCIENCES INC, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 10.9% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Gilead Sciences belongs to the Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry, a group that includes 510 individual stocks and currently sits at #64 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 8% so far this year, meaning that GILD is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns. ANIXA BIOSCIENCES INC is also part of the same industry.

Going forward, investors interested in Medical stocks should continue to pay close attention to Gilead Sciences and ANIXA BIOSCIENCES INC as they could maintain their solid performance.

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Gilead Sciences, Inc. (GILD) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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