Has Agenus (AGEN) Outpaced Other Medical Stocks This Year?

Investors interested in Medical stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Is Agenus (AGEN) 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.

Agenus is one of 892 companies in the Medical group. The Medical group currently sits at #7 within 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 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. Agenus is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for AGEN's full-year earnings has moved 352.4% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Based on the latest available data, AGEN has gained about 6.1% so far this year. At the same time, Medical stocks have lost an average of 4.1%. This shows that Agenus is outperforming its peers so far this year.

One other Medical stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Ensign Group (ENSG). The stock is up 12.9% year-to-date.

For Ensign Group, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 5.7% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Agenus belongs to the Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry, a group that includes 436 individual stocks and currently sits at #143 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 5% so far this year, so AGEN is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

Ensign Group, however, belongs to the Medical - Nursing Homes industry. Currently, this 2-stock industry is ranked #4. The industry has moved +16.2% so far this year.

Investors with an interest in Medical stocks should continue to track Agenus and Ensign Group. These stocks will be looking to continue their solid performance.

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

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