Are Medical Stocks Lagging Ardelyx (ARDX) This Year?

Investors interested in Medical stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Is Ardelyx (ARDX) one of those stocks right now? 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.

Ardelyx is one of 932 companies in the Medical group. The Medical group currently sits at #5 within the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank includes 16 different groups and is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors.

The Zacks Rank is a proven model that highlights a variety of stocks with the right characteristics to outperform the market over the next one to three months. The system emphasizes earnings estimate revisions and favors companies with improving earnings outlooks. Ardelyx is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ARDX's full-year earnings has moved 1537.5% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

Based on the latest available data, ARDX has gained about 32.8% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Medical group have gained about 7.5% on average. This means that Ardelyx is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

Another Medical stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Halozyme Therapeutics (HALO). The stock has returned 7.7% year-to-date.

The consensus estimate for Halozyme Therapeutics' current year EPS has increased 0.8% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Ardelyx belongs to the Medical - Drugs industry, which includes 141 individual stocks and currently sits at #72 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 4.2% this year, meaning that ARDX is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

Halozyme Therapeutics, however, belongs to the Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry. Currently, this 453-stock industry is ranked #91. The industry has moved +19.6% so far this year.

Ardelyx and Halozyme Therapeutics could continue their solid performance, so investors interested in Medical stocks should continue to pay close attention to these stocks.

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

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