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

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals is one of 1025 companies in the Medical group. The Medical group currently sits at #1 within the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different sector groups. The average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups is measured, and the sectors are listed from best to worst.

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. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ALNY's full-year earnings has moved 32% higher within the past quarter. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Our latest available data shows that ALNY has returned about 57% since the start of the calendar year. At the same time, Medical stocks have gained an average of 8.1%. As we can see, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Another stock in the Medical sector, ANI Pharmaceuticals (ANIP), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 8.2%.

For ANI Pharmaceuticals, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 8.1% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

To break things down more, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals belongs to the Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry, a group that includes 504 individual companies and currently sits at #93 in the Zacks Industry Rank. This group has gained an average of 0.6% so far this year, so ALNY is performing better in this area. ANI Pharmaceuticals is also part of the same industry.

Investors interested in the Medical sector may want to keep a close eye on Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and ANI Pharmaceuticals as they attempt to continue their solid performance.

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