The Medical group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Encompass Health (EHC) 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.
Encompass Health is a member of our Medical group, which includes 973 different companies and currently sits at #8 in 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 successful stock-picking model that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions. The system highlights a number of different stocks that could be poised to outperform the broader market over the next one to three months. Encompass Health is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for EHC's full-year earnings has moved 5.1% higher. This signals that analyst sentiment is improving and the stock's earnings outlook is more positive.
Our latest available data shows that EHC has returned about 32.3% since the start of the calendar year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Medical group have lost about 3.2% on average. As we can see, Encompass Health is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.
Another Medical stock, which has outperformed the sector so far this year, is Idexx Laboratories (IDXX). The stock has returned 55.1% year-to-date.
Over the past three months, Idexx Laboratories' consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 3.7%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
To break things down more, Encompass Health belongs to the Medical - Outpatient and Home Healthcare industry, a group that includes 15 individual companies and currently sits at #54 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 7.8% so far this year, so EHC is performing better in this area.
On the other hand, Idexx Laboratories belongs to the Medical - Instruments industry. This 83-stock industry is currently ranked #159. The industry has moved -8.5% year to date.
Going forward, investors interested in Medical stocks should continue to pay close attention to Encompass Health and Idexx Laboratories as they could maintain their solid performance.
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Encompass Health Corporation (EHC): Free Stock Analysis Report IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (IDXX): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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