Is AC Immune (ACIU) Outperforming Other Medical Stocks 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 AC Immune (ACIU) been one of those stocks this year? 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.

AC Immune is one of 924 individual stocks in the Medical sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #10 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. AC Immune is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ACIU's full-year earnings has moved 8% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Based on the most recent data, ACIU has returned 5.7% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Medical group have lost about 3.7% on average. This means that AC Immune is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.

Anavex Life Sciences (AVXL) is another Medical stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has returned 27.8%.

The consensus estimate for Anavex Life Sciences' current year EPS has increased 28.3% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, AC Immune belongs to the Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry, a group that includes 444 individual stocks and currently sits at #140 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 3.5% so far this year, so ACIU is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns. Anavex Life Sciences is also part of the same industry.

AC Immune and Anavex Life Sciences 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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