Investors focused on the Medical space have likely heard of Abbott Laboratories (ABT Quick QuoteABT - Free Report) , but is the stock performing well in comparison to the rest of its sector peers? Let's take a closer look at the stock's year-to-date performance to find out.

Abbott Laboratories is one of 867 individual stocks in the Medical sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #2 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 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. ABT is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ABT's full-year earnings has moved 0.79% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

According to our latest data, ABT has moved about 14.97% on a year-to-date basis. At the same time, Medical stocks have gained an average of 0.91%. This shows that Abbott Laboratories is outperforming its peers so far this year.

To break things down more, ABT belongs to the Medical - Products industry, a group that includes 79 individual companies and currently sits at #67 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, stocks in this group have gained 13.11% this year, meaning that ABT is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

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