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Is West Pharmaceutical Services (WST) Stock Outpacing Its Medical Peers This Year?

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For those looking to find strong Medical stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. West Pharmaceutical Services (WST - Free Report) 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? One simple way to answer this question is to take a look at the year-to-date performance of WST and the rest of the Medical group's stocks.

West Pharmaceutical Services is a member of the Medical sector. This group includes 901 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #9. 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 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. WST is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for WST's full-year earnings has moved 18.12% higher. This means that analyst sentiment is stronger and the stock's earnings outlook is improving.

Based on the most recent data, WST has returned 83.04% so far this year. In comparison, Medical companies have returned an average of 2.28%. This shows that West Pharmaceutical Services is outperforming its peers so far this year.

Looking more specifically, WST belongs to the Medical - Dental Supplies industry, a group that includes 21 individual stocks and currently sits at #109 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 7.40% so far this year, so WST is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

Going forward, investors interested in Medical stocks should continue to pay close attention to WST as it looks to continue its solid performance.


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