Are Medical Stocks Lagging Cardinal Health (CAH) This Year?
For those looking to find strong Medical stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Has Cardinal Health (CAH) been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.
Cardinal Health is one of 1088 individual stocks in the Medical sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #3 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. Cardinal Health is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for CAH's full-year earnings has moved 3.5% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.
According to our latest data, CAH has moved about 39.2% on a year-to-date basis. At the same time, Medical stocks have lost an average of 6.4%. This means that Cardinal Health is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.
Another stock in the Medical sector, DaVita HealthCare (DVA), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 43.3%.
For DaVita HealthCare, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 9.5% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
Looking more specifically, Cardinal Health belongs to the Medical - Dental Supplies industry, which includes 16 individual stocks and currently sits at #171 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 10.2% so far this year, so CAH is performing better in this area.
In contrast, DaVita HealthCare falls under the Medical - Outpatient and Home Healthcare industry. Currently, this industry has 17 stocks and is ranked #44. Since the beginning of the year, the industry has moved +5.6%.
Going forward, investors interested in Medical stocks should continue to pay close attention to Cardinal Health and DaVita HealthCare as they could maintain their solid performance.
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