For those looking to find strong Medical stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Has Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY) been one of those stocks this year? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Medical sector should help us answer this question.

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals is a member of the Medical sector. This group includes 1020 individual stocks and currently holds a Zacks Sector Rank of #2. 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 model that highlights a variety of stocks with the right characteristics to outperform the market over the next one to three months. The system emphasizes earnings estimate revisions and favors companies with improving earnings outlooks. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for ALNY's full-year earnings has moved 19.3% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

According to our latest data, ALNY has moved about 27.1% on a year-to-date basis. Meanwhile, the Medical sector has returned an average of -3.8% on a year-to-date basis. This shows that Alnylam Pharmaceuticals is outperforming its peers so far this year.

One other Medical stock that has outperformed the sector so far this year is argenex SE (ARGX). The stock is up 65.6% year-to-date.

In argenex SE's case, the consensus EPS estimate for the current year increased 659.1% over the past three months. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Breaking things down more, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals is a member of the Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry, which includes 501 individual companies and currently sits at #59 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have lost about 11.5% so far this year, so ALNY is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns. argenex SE is also part of the same industry.

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

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