雅虎香港財經 Has Arbutus Biopharma (ABUS) Outpaced Other Medical Stocks This Year?
The Medical group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is Arbutus Biopharma (ABUS) 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.
Arbutus Biopharma is a member of our Medical group, which includes 1015 different companies and currently sits at #6 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 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. Arbutus Biopharma is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ABUS' full-year earnings has moved 2.6% higher within the past quarter. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.
Based on the latest available data, ABUS has gained about 60.8% so far this year. Meanwhile, stocks in the Medical group have gained about 9.7% on average. This means that Arbutus Biopharma is performing better than its sector in terms of year-to-date returns.
One other Medical stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is Astrazeneca (AZN). The stock is up 14.1% year-to-date.
The consensus estimate for Astrazeneca's current year EPS has increased 0.6% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
To break things down more, Arbutus Biopharma belongs to the Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry, a group that includes 495 individual companies and currently sits at #82 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has lost an average of 0.3% so far this year, so ABUS is performing better in this area.
On the other hand, Astrazeneca belongs to the Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry. This 12-stock industry is currently ranked #42. The industry has moved +22.7% year to date.
Going forward, investors interested in Medical stocks should continue to pay close attention to Arbutus Biopharma and Astrazeneca as they could maintain their solid performance.
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