Investors interested in Medical stocks should always be looking to find the best-performing companies in the group. Has Illumina (ILMN Quick QuoteILMN - Free Report) been one of those stocks this year? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Illumina is one of 760 individual stocks in the Medical sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #6 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 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. ILMN is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ILMN's full-year earnings has moved 0.14% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the most recent data, ILMN has returned 32.38% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Medical sector has returned an average of 3.06% on a year-to-date basis. This shows that Illumina is outperforming its peers so far this year.

Breaking things down more, ILMN is a member of the Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry, which includes 280 individual companies and currently sits at #106 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have lost 2.64% this year, meaning that ILMN is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

ILMN will likely be looking to continue its solid performance, so investors interested Medical stocks should continue to pay close attention to the company.