For those looking to find strong Medical stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. 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 a member of the Medical sector. This group includes 757 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #6. The Zacks Sector Rank gauges the strength of our 16 individual sector groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups.

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).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ILMN's full-year earnings has moved 11.24% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Based on the most recent data, ILMN has returned 51.70% so far this year. Meanwhile, the Medical sector has returned an average of 5.94% on a year-to-date basis. This shows that Illumina is outperforming its peers so far this year.

Looking more specifically, ILMN belongs to the Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry, a group that includes 280 individual stocks and currently sits at #99 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have lost 2.50% this year, meaning that ILMN is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

Investors in the Medical sector will want to keep a close eye on ILMN as it attempts to continue its solid performance.